EDITED  BY 

SUNDEL   DONIGEH 


A  Zionist  Primer 


ESSAYS   BY 
VARIOUS  WRITERS 

EDITED   BY 

SUNDEL    DONIGER 


WITH  TWO  MAPS 


NEW    YORK 

YOUNG    JUDAEA 

44  EAST  23RD  STREET 
1917 


Copyrighted  by  Young  Judaea 

1917 
All  rights  reserved 


This  volume  published  by  Young  Judaea  attempts  to  make 
clear  to  the  Jewish  youth  the  Jewish  problem  and  the  solution 
as  formulated  in  the  Zionist  program. 

Young  Judaea  is  an  organization  of  young  men  and  young 
women  who  are  awakened  to  the  needs  of  our  people  and  who 
desire  to  equip  themselves  for  effective  service  in  the  training  of 
our  youth. 

We  feel  the  menace  of  a  generation  growing  up  in  ignorance 
of  its  history,  traditions  and  national  ideals.  Education  in  the 
schools  of  America  can  teach  the  new  generation  only  the  beau- 
ties of  other  cultures,  and  the  heroisms  of  other  nations.  The 
Bible  has  become  a  sealed  book,  or  one  to  be  read  in  the  light  of 
an  interpretation  dominated  by  alien  thought;  and  the  heroic 
figures  of  our  own  history,  our  national  revival  and  the  Hebrew 
renaissance  are  almost  entirely  unknown. 

The  new  generation  is  largely  unconscious  of  the  vital  and 
creative  forces  that  have  their  roots  in  the  East,  and  of  which  the 
Jewish  nation  is  the  guardian;  of  the  national  heroism  that  has 
endured  throughout  the  ages ;  of  the  lofty  vision  of  a  common- 
wealth to  be  rebuilt  in  Palestine  and  based  on  justice  and  right- 
eousness, a  vision  cherished  with  unfaltering  courage  for  thou- 
sands of  years  and  which  has  given  continuity  and  significance 
to  Jewish  history. 

Palestine  is  the  motif  that  runs  through  all  the  drama  of  our 
history.  It  is  the  subject  of  the  dreams  of  our  prophets,  our 
sages  and  our  poets.  This  book  is  the  account  of  an  attempt  to 
realize  the  dreams  of  the  centuries. 

We  feel  that  this  volume  must  appeal  to  the  love  of  heroism 
in  the  Jewish  youth,  to  his  sense  of  dignity  and  to  his  highest 
aspirations  for  freedom  and  self-realization. 

We  hope  the  response  will  be  such  as  to  encourage  us  in  our 
efforts  to  bring  back  and  hold  our  Jewish  youth  to  the  path  of 
HTs  fathers. 

CHARLES  A.  COWEN. 


CONTENTS 


Page 

PREFACE  -  -  3 

by  Charles  A.    Ccwen 

WHAT  OUR  HISTORY  MEANS       -  7 

by  fessie  E.  Sampter 

THE  JEWISH  PROBLEM     -  21 

by  D.  de  Sola  Pool 

THE  FORERUNNERS  OF  ZIONISM  30 

by  Lotta  Levensohn 

DR.  THEODOR  HERZL      -  -  35 

by  Israel  Goldberg 

THE  ZIONIST  ORGANIZATION  43 

by  B.  A.  Rosenblatt 

PARTIES  IN  ZIONISM  47 

by  Louis  Lipsky 

WHAT  OUR  PIONEERS  HAVE  ACCOMPLISHED      -  53 

by  Margaret  Gluck 

No,  You  Do  NOT  KNOW  THE  LAND      -  62 

by  Ittamar  Ben  Avi 

PALESTINE  AND  THE  JEWISH  DISPERSION  78 

by  D.  de  Sola  Pool 


WHAT  OUR  HISTORY  MEANS 
BY  JESSIE  E.  SAMPTER 

1.     ABRAHAM 

The  Biblical  history  of  our  people  begins  with  Abraham. 
What  we  read  in  the  Bible  before  reading  of  Abraham  refers  to 
the  whole  world.  It  is  a  sketch,  in  few  words  and  in  poetic 
stories,  of  life  before  we  became  a  people.  It  explains  why  God 
chose  the  Jewish  people  to  be  his  servant. 

Perhaps  two  thousand  years  before  the  year  one  of  the 
modern  era,  God  chose  Abraham  to  be  the  father  of  his  chosen 
people.  What  does  it  mean  that  Abraham  was  chosen?  It 
means  that  Abraham  alone  knew  God  to  be  God.  And  he  knew 
something  else :  that  man  must  be  like  God,  must  live  in  wisdom 
and  justice,  and  that  his  people  must  live  as  one  man  would  live 
before  God.  God  promised  to  multiply  Abraham's  seed  as  the 
stars  of  the  heavens  and  as  the  sands  of  the  seashore,  and  to 
make  of  his  children  a  great  nation  in  which  all  the  nations  of 
the  earth  should  be  blest,  and  to  give  him  the  land  of  Canaan  as 
an  inheritance  forever.  For  only  a  people  living  together  can 
prove  that  it  loves  and  serves  God.  It  is  easy  for  one  man  to 
live  alone  in  righteousness.  But  for  a  people  to  keep  the  laws 
of  God,  that  is  the  great  and  difficult  task.  Canaan,  or  Pales- 
tine, in  southwestern  Asia,  was  chosen  because  it  is  a  certain 
kind  of  land.  It  is  a  tiny  land,  more  varied  than  most  great 
countries.  There  are  the  Lebanon  mountains,  always  capped 
with  snow;  the  valley  of  the  Jordan  and  the  Dead  Sea,  .those 
wild,  strange  depths  far  below  the  sea-level ;  the  fertile  plains  of 
Sharon,  full  of  gaily  colored  flowers  and  vineyards ;  and  the  bar- 
ren rocky  lands,  gardens  and  deserts,  seashore  and  mountains. 
It  is  also  a  land  through  which  many  peoples  have  ever  passed 
to  and  fro,  for  it  was  always  a  passage  way  between  the  Medi- 
terranean Sea  and  the  Euphrates  River,  a  battle-ground  and  a 
market-place  between  Egypt  and  Babylon.  Why  should  the 
chosen  people,  the  people  that  are  to  express  and  teach  the  laws 
of  God,  live  in  such  a  land  as  this?  Because  the  kind  of  land 
one  lives  in  helps  to  shape  one's  character.  Those  people  who 
sail  or  fish  at  the  seashore,  and  those  who  hunt  on  the  moun- 
tains, or  who  plant  vineyards  and  farms,  or  who  lead  flocks  in 
fertile  valleys,  or  who  travel  over  deserts,  grow  through  their 
different  occupations  to  have  different  characters.  Therefore  a 
people  who  lived  in  one  small  land  that  had  all  these  qualities 


would  develop  a  many-sided  character.  If  they  live  in  a  land 
where  many  strangers  pass,  they  will  be  greatly  tempted  to 
break  their  peculiar  and  strict  laws ;  the  weak  will  be  lost  among 
the  nations,  but  the  strong  will  become  stronger.  And  mean- 
while this  people  will  become  broad-minded,  it  will  learn  from 
all  peoples  their  best  knowledge  to  add  to  its  own  knowledge. 
As  a  man  alone  can  easily  be  good,  so  can  a  lonely  nation.  The 
great  life  which  God  demanded  was  to  love  peace  in  the  midst 
of  war,  to  keep  pure  in  the  midst  of  impure  nations,  to  worship 
God  in  the  midst  of  idolators.  God's  covenant  with  Abraham 
was  that  if  the  Children  of  Israel  by  fulfilling  his  law  proved 
worthy  of  this  land,  then  they  should  possess  it  forever. 

Abraham,  Isaac,  Jacob  (or  Israel),  Joseph — if  we  study  dili- 
gently, we  shall  some  day  understand  the  full  historic  meaning 
of  their  deeds.  After  the  famine  in  Canaan,  after  Joseph's 
triumph  in  Egypt,  the  Children  of  Israel  lived  in  Egypt  for  many 
years,  independent  and  comfortable.  Perhaps  some,  still  call- 
ing themselves  Israelites  in  a  vague  way,  forgot  that  they  had 
any  other  future  than  to  be  rich  in  Egypt.  But  because  they 
did  not  really  belong  in  the  land,  therefore  a  time  of  trial  must 
surely  come,  when  in  their  trials  they  would  see  their  separate- 
ness.  A  king  arose  who  knew  not  Joseph,  who  oppressed  and 
ill-treated  the  Children  of  Israel  as  foreigners,  who  made  of  them 
poor  drudges  and  outcasts. 

And  then  arose  Moses,  the  first  and  greatest  prophet. 
Moses  was  a  loyal  Israelite  educated  in  a  kingly  Egyptian  house- 
hold. Therefore  he  must  have  added  all  Egyptian  knowledge 
to  his  own  knowledge.  He  believed  in  God.  But  so  did  some 
of  the  learned  Egyptian  priests  believe  in  one  God.  They  did 
not  tell  the  common  people  this  because  they  thought  the  com- 
mon people  could  understand  only  idols. 

Moses  in  the  wilderness  whither  he  fled  after  smiting  the 
Egyptian,  had  time  to  think  and  to  see  visions.  He  then  dis- 
covered that  belief  in  God  was  not  enough,  that  he  had  also  to 
obey  God  as  the  God  of  his  fathers,  of  his  people, — that  he  had 
to  believe  in  the  chosen  people.  How  did  the  religion  of  Moses 
differ  from  that  of  the  enlightened  Egyptian  priests?  Moses  be- 
lieved in  democracy,  in  the  people.  He  believed  that  all  the 
people  must  know  and  obey  God,  that  they  must  be  a  Kingdom 
of  Priests,  not  a  nation  of  a  few  wise  priests  who  knew  God, 
and  of  many  foolish  people  who  worshipped  idols.  With  this 
people  the  priests  were  to  be  their  servants  and  representatives. 
He  believed  in  progress.  The  God  who  called  himself  "  I  will 
be  that  which  I  will  be"  would  surely  reveal  himself  to  the  world 
through  the  deeds  of  his  chosen  people,  his  holy  nation.  He 
also  believed  in  our  land.  He  knew  that  religion  is  not  only 
believing,  but  doing.  Not  the  goodness  of  one  man,  but  the 
righteousness  of  his  people  must  glorify  his  God.  Only  a  free 
man  or  a  free  people  can  be  noble,  and  only  in  the  promised 

8 


land  could  the  Jewish  people  develop  in  their  freedom.  When 
Moses  believed  in  God  he  was  a  good  man,  but  when  he  dis- 
covered the  God  of  his  fathers,  his  own  people,  and  his  own 
land,  he  became  a  prophet.  *  *  * 

II.     MOSES. 

When  Moses  called  his  people  to  follow  him,  many  of  them 
reproached  him  because  now  Pharaoh  would  burden  them  still 
more.  So  long  had  they  been  humbled  that  they  forgot  they 
were  princes  of  God  in  disguise.  They  thought  they  were 
just  unfortunate  Egyptians.  And  when  at  last  Moses  led  them 
forth,  he  had  to  keep  them  for  many  years  in  the  wilderness 
because  they  could  not  live  the  kind  of  life  worthy  of  the  chosen 
people  in  the  chosen  land.  He  had  to  wait  for  the  next  genera- 
tion and  teach  that. 

Those  laws  of  God  which  we  are  told  Moses  taught  during 
this  time,  are  a  national  constitution  to  the  Jews.  The  ten  com- 
mandments might  be  called  the  foundation  of  this  constitution, 
which  cannot  be  amended.  Other  laws  have  been  explained  or 
interpreted  from  time  to  time  by  the  leaders  or  teachers  of  the 
people,  with  the  consent  of  the  Jewish  people.  The  Jews  are 
a  lawful,  democratic  people  whose  constitution  is  the  law  of 
God. 

Notice  that  in  the  second  commandment  we  have  the  state- 
ment that  God  visits  the  sins  of  the  fathers  upon  the  children  to 
the  third  and  fourth  generation.  Besides  being  a  statement  of 
fact,  this  shows  that  the  Jews  should  not  think  of  themselves  as 
persons,  but  of  their  whole  people  as  if  it  were  one  person.  The 
people  was  rewarded,  the  people  was  punished. 

III.    TO  THE  SECOND  TEMPLE. 

After  Moses'  death,  his  little  holy  nation  struggled  on  for 
many  years  in  Palestine.  Theirs  was  never  an  easy  life.  Many 
terrible  wars  were  forced  upon  them;  and  if  they  returned  vic- 
torious, it  was  because  of  their  faith  and  their  clean  lives.  They 
resembled  their  neighbors  in  all  but  two  things,  their  devotion 
to  God  and  their  democratic  and  just  state.  The  people  round- 
about worshipped  gods  of  wood  or  metal  or  stone,  and  lived 
cruel,  immoral  and  dirty  lives.  And  often  the  Children  of  Israel 
were  tempted  and  many  of  them  fell,  for  they  were  not  protected 
from  temptation.  Especially  after  they  became  a  kingdom — 
even  though  the  people  and  the  prophets  chose  Saul  and  David— 
their  kings  began  to  imitate  the  kings  of  other  countries,  to  be 
luxurious,  tyrannous  and  cruel,  and  to  try  to  make  the  people 
serve  them  for  their  pleasure.  Then  came  revolts.  The  one 
kingdom  was  divided  into  two.  The  kings  and  many  of  the 
people  became  idolatrous  and  corrupt.  Truly  it  was  hard  for 

***    Moses:  Selected  Essays,  Achad  Ha-ain. 


them,  a  handful  of  God's  people,  to  keep  themselves  distinct 
from  their  neighbors.  It  is  always  much  easier  to  imitate  others 
than  to  be  true  to  ourselves. 

But  Israel  and  Judah,  divided  and  at  war,  still  had  their 
democratic  leaders,  the  prophets,  who  saved  them  from  being 
wholly  destroyed,  who  thundered  against  the  wicked  kings  and 
nobles,  and  guarded  their  pure  faith  in  God  and  his  chosen 
people.  The  differences  between  a  priest  and  a  prophet  are 
these:  a  priest  is  born  to  his  office,  and  his  work  is  to  help  the 
people  apply  the  laws  of  God  to  their  daily  life  and  worship.  A 
prophet  is  chosen  to  his  office  by  his  own  vision  of  God.  He  is 
an  inspired  poet,  and  his  task  is  to  enlighten  the  people,  who 
gladly  listen  to  him,  and  to  show  them  how  the  laws  of  God  will 
act  upon  them  in  the  future,  if  they  dare  to  disobey.  He  fore- 
sees what  must  happen,  because  he  knows  the  unchangeable 
justice  of  God.  He  prophesies  punishment  and  reward.  The 
punishment  is  always  destruction  of  the  nation  and  banishment 
among  strange  peoples.  The  reward  is  always  establishment 
in  their  own  land  of  Palestine,  with  the  freedom  to  serve  God 
in  worship  and  in  life,  and  the  bringing  together  of  all  the 
nations  of  the  world  in  the  Kingdom  of  God. 

When  Assyria,  and  later  Babylonia,  became  great,  Judah 
and  Israel  had  been  so  weakened  by  sin,  quarrels,  foreign  alli- 
ances and  intermarriages  that  they  were  easily  conquered. 
Israel,  more  corrupt  and  divided,  fell  first.  Judah,  the  Southern 
Kingdom,  with  Jerusalem  as  its  religious  center,  lasted  150  years 
longer. 

God  does  not  pet  and  spoil  his  children.  He  entrusts  them 
with  great  tasks.  He  had  not  given  Palestine  to  Israel  as  a 
pleasure-ground,  but  as  a  spiritual  battlefield  for  his  righteous 
cause  with  the  world.  Now  they  forfeited  that  right. 

Had  the  Jews  remained  contented  with  their  law  and  their 
land,  and  willing  to  govern  themselves  democratically,  to  worship 
at  their  temple  in  Jerusalem,  to  be  independent  without  political 
ambitions,  and  not  to  care  who  was  emperor,  then  the  fair- 
minded  Babylonian  king  would  have  let  them  so  remain,  and 
Judah  might  have  stayed  an  island  of  peace  amid  the  raging  seas 
of  war.  But  she  rebelled  internally  and  externally.  Then  the 
holy  city  was  beseiged,  and  after  a  long,  bitter  struggle  was 
conquered  and  horribly  destroyed.  The  holy  temple  lay  in 
ruins  on  the  Ninth  of  Ab,  586  B.  C.  E.,  and  most  of  the  people 
who  were  not  killed  were  carried  away  captive  from  the  desolate 
land. 

Across  the  Jordan,  to  the  flat  plains  of  Babylon,  went  the 
people  of  the  mountain  of  God.  For  about  seventy  years  they 
remained  a  nation  without  a  land.  Even  when  they  were  com- 
fortable they  did  not  forget  their  land,  else  had  they  ceased  to 
be  a  people.  "If  I  forget  thee,  O  Jerusalem,  may  my  right  hand 
forget  her  cunning."  So  they  sang.  Their  prophets  and  poets 

10 


encouraged  and  comforted  them  until  the  day  when  a  kind 
king  allowed  a  number  of  them  to  return  to  Palestine,  and  to 
rebuild  Jerusalem  and  the  temple.  A  great  hope  and  purpose 
filled  these  returning  Jews.  Idolatry  had  died  out  among  them. 
They  cared  not  for  power  or  riches.  Their  power  was  freedom 
and  their  riches  were  the  word  of  God. 

IV.    TO  THE  SECOND  DESTRUCTION. 

After  great  trials  and  hardships,  the  temple  was  rebuilt, 
under  the  leadership  of  Ezra  and  Nehemiah.  And  then  these 
men  began  to  build  something  even  greater  than  the  temple — 
the  Jewish  People  for  all  time.  The  next  two  hundred  years 
were  the  most  wonderful  in  all  Jewish  history;  and  yet  very 
little  is  known  of  them,  for  the  people  lived  so  peacefully,  they 
had  no  history  to  write.  Theirs  was  a  greater  task.  As  part  of 
the  Persian  Empire,  they  still  had  absolute  freedom;  they  gov- 
erned themselves  democratically,  through  a  great  assembly. 
The  first  leader  of  the  assembly  was  Ezra,  the  last  was  Simon 
the  Just;  and  those  that  came  between  have  not  even  been  re- 
corded. Yet  these  unrecorded  leaders  and  their  people  did  as 
great  a  work  as  has  ever  been  done  in  the  world.  They  edited, 
arranged,  and  completed  the  Torah  and  the  Prophetic  Books, 
and  so  gave  the  Bible  to  all  mankind.  The  monument  and 
memorial  of  this  happy  time  of  Jewish  history  is  the  Bible. 

When  Alexander,  the  great  Greek  general,  conquered  the 
then  known  world  he  conquered  also  Palestine.  During  his 
lifetime,  the  Jews  continued  self-governing.  But  when  his  em- 
pire was  divided  after  his  death,  they  fell  to  the  portion  of  the 
Syrian  governor.  But,  as  before,  the  greatest  enemy  of  the 
Jews  was  their  own  weakness.  They  might  have  continued  to 
govern  themselves,  had  not  weak  Jews  fallen  in  love  with  the 
Greek  fashions  and  pleasures,  with  Greek  gods  and  goddesses, 
and  with  Greek  gymnastics.  Then  there  arose  a  party  opposed 
to  the  Greek  way  of  life,  the  Chassidim,  who  were  ready  to  die 
to  preserve  the  Jewish  law  and  religion.  The  Hellenists,  or 
Greece-loving  Jews,  opposed  these  Chassidim,  and  spoke  ill  of 
them  to  their  foes,  until  matters  became  so  bad  that  Antiochus 
Epiphanes,  Syrian  governor,  decided  to  wipe  out  the  Jewish  re- 
ligion. He  crushed  and  persecuted  the  Jewish  people ;  he  set  up 
a  statue  of  Zeus  on  the  altar  of  the  temple ;  he  murdered  all 
who  kept  the  Sabbath  or  circumcised  their  children,  or  refused 
to  eat  pork.  We  all  know  the  story  of  the  death  of  brave  Han- 
nah and  her  seven  sons.  Another  great  Jew,  Eleazer,  died 
rather  than  to  pretend  to  eat  pork  in  the  presence  of  his  people. 

Then  one  day,  in  the  little  town  of  Modin,  the  brave  old 
Jewish  priest,  Mattathias,  arose  and  slew  another  Jew  who, 
at  the  command  of  the  Greek  soldiers,  was  worshipping  a  Greek 
god.  Mattathias,  joined  by  his  loyal  Jewish  friends,  fought  the 

11 


Greek  soldiers.  And  so  began  the  famous  wars  of  the  Macca- 
bees, of  a  handful  of  true-hearted  Jews,  who  first  fought  from 
their  hiding  places  in  caves,  and  then,  as  they  were  joined  by 
others,  fought  victoriously  in  the  open,  and  at  last  reconquered 
the  Jewish  land,  re-inspired  the  Jewish  people,  and  under  the 
hero,  Judah  Maccabee,  son  of  Mattathias,  cleansed  and  re-dedi- 
cated the  temple  and  relit  the  temple  lamp.  And  then  they  cele- 
brated Chanukah,  the  festival  of  the  few  who  overcame  the 
many,  of  the  little  light  that  grows  and  grows. 

Now  the  Jews  ruled  their  country  once  more,  and  they  were 
happy  and  prospered.  Colonies  of  them  also  lived  in  Egypt  and 
other  parts  of  the  world.  Palestine,  still  a  passage-way  be- 
tween many  nations,  was  beset  by  temptation,  and  yet,  small 
as  it  was,  and  weakened  by  the  fact  that  it  began  to  have  an 
aristocratic,  or  noble,  party  of  soldiers,  still  resisted  the  growing 
power  of  Rome  longer  than  any  other  country.  At  last  the 
power  of  Rome,  like  an  iron  hand,  was  laid  upon  Palestine,  and 
gradually  the  Jews  lost  their  freedom.  The  world  about  them, 
even  more  than  in  older  times,  was  immoral  in  religion  and  life. 
People  became  selfish  and  greedy,  and  loved  luxury  and  ease 
more  than  justice,  and  began  to  doubt  even  their  pagan  gods. 
Among  the  Jews,  too,  were  many  untrue  to  Judaism  and  traitors 
to  their  people,  and  the  land  was  torn  with  quarrels. 

Then  arose  three  parties  among  the  Jews,  each  of  which 
tried  to  solve  the  Jewish  problems  in  a  different  way. 

The  Sadducees  were  the  soldiers  and  the  nobility.  They 
were  very  hard.  They  said :  "  We  must  fight  Rome  even  if  we 
are  all  destroyed.  We  cannot  be  true  Jews  while  we  are  not 
free.  We  must  keep  exactly  the  laws  of  the  Bible,  and  not  try 
to  change  them  for  our  present  needs." 

The  Pharisees  were  kindlier  and  more  learned.  They  were 
the  more  democratic  party,  the  strong  middle-class.  Hillel  be- 
longed to  them.  They  said:  "It  is  true,  we  cannot  build  up 
Judaism  while  we  are  not  free;  but  if  we  let  Rome  destroy  us 
all,  what  will  then  become  of  Judaism?  We  will  teach  and 
study,  we  will  never  forget  that  at  last  we  must  be  free  to  be 
successful  Jews,  but  we  will  not  destroy  ourselves  by  fighting 
now,  when  there  is  no  hope.  As  for  the  Biblical  laws,  we  will 
study  them,  and  find  in  them  ways  of  keeping  them  modern. 
We  will  honor  the  spoken  tradition  of  our  fathers;  we  will,  if 
need  be,  make  the  laws  even  stricter  than  they  are  now;  we  will 
build  a  fence  around  the  law,  so  as  to  keep  ourselves  separate 
from  other  peoples  by  every  act  of  our  life.  Thus  will  we  pre- 
serve our  nation." 

The  Essenes,  the  third  party,  said :  "We  cannot  be  good  in 
this  wicked  world.  We  will  go  away  from  cities  of  men  to 
where  we  can  keep  the  laws  of  God."  They  thought  of  them- 
selves as  persons,  not  as  part  of  a  nation.  They  lived  a  simple, 
good  life,  in  virtuous  communities  in  the  mountains  near  the 

12 


Jordan;  and  as  they  feared  in  marriage  to  break  some  of  the 
strict  Biblical  laws,  they  did  not  even  marry.  But  their  good- 
ness did  no  good,  for  it  was  a  selfish  goodness,  for  themselves 
and  not  for  their  people.  It  was  un-Jewish  in  spirit,  unfruitful, 
and  it  soon  died  out. 

But  it  may  have  had  a  great  effect  on  the  world  through 
Christianity. 

About  this  time,  about  30  C.  E.,  Jesus  of  Nazareth  began  to 
preach  to  some  of  the  Jews.  He  may  have  been  an  Essene;  he 
certainly  shared  some  of  their  ideas.  He  taught  Judaism  to  "the 
lost  sheep  of  Israel,"  to  some  of  the  ignorant  northern  Jews 
whom  the  Pharisees  had  not  had  a  chance  to  teach.  He  was 
very  kind  and  good  to  these  people.  On  the  whole,  he  taught 
what  Hillel  and  the  other  Pharisees  had  taught,  and  he  used 
many  of  their  sayings.  But  there  were  some  differences.  For 
instance,  he  taught  that  the  nation  did  not  matter;  that  a  slave 
should  be  a  good  slave  and  not  try  to  free  himself;  that  if  a 
person  were  good  he  would  be  happy,  and  he  need  not  trouble 
about  nations  or  governments ;  that  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  was 
the  only  kingdom  worth  striving  for,  and  that  the  only  way  to 
reach  it  was  by  being  good.  In  other  words,  like  the  Essenes, 
he  withdrew  from  big  social  questions  because  they  seemed  too 
terrible  at  that  time.  He  preached  personal  goodness  for  the 
sake  of  personal  reward. 

His  followers,  most  of  them  ignorant  people,  who,  in  their 
despair,  were  waiting  for  the  Messiah  to  save  them,  called  him 
Messiah  and  King  of  the  Jews.  The  Jews  of  the  Synhedrion  at 
Jerusalem  arrested  him  and  accused  him  of  blasphemy  for  call- 
ing himself  the  Son  of  God.  He  was  turned  over  to  the  Roman 
court,  and  by  them  he  was  of  course  considered  a  Jewish  rebel. 
Whereupon  the  Romans  crucified  Jesus. 

Some  years  later  one  of  the  Christian  converts,  Paul,  de- 
cided that  Christianity  must  be  taught  to  the  gentiles,  the 
heathen,  so  that  all  the  world  might  be  saved.  Jesus  had  been 
a  Jew,  teaching  Judaism ;  and  what  Paul  taught  the  world  was 
a  form  of  Judaism.  But  he  knew  that  although  the  pagans 
might  accept  belief  in  God,  and  in  Jesus,  the  Christ  or  Messiah 
of  God,  they  would  never  be  willing  to  live  the  hard  Jewish  life, 
to  be  circumcised  and  keep  the  dietary  laws.  An  old  Jewish 
legend  says  that  when  the  Messiah  comes  the  law  will  end, 
which  means  that  when  we  are  all  good  we  can  stop  thinking 
of  laws.  "Therefore,"  Paul  argued,  "as  Jesus  the  Christ  was 
the  Messiah,  the  law  is  at  an  end.  You  need  only  believe  in 
Jesus  Christ  as  the  Son  of  God,  who  came  into  the  world  and 
died  to  save  you.  Faith,  not  works,  will  attain  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven." 

But  law  is  necessary  where  people  live  together.  One  must 
act  as  well  as  believe.  It  is  easy  to  have  faith.  The  gentiles, 
disgusted  with  their  old  gods,  rapidly  became  Christians.  Their 

13 


Christianity  was  a  mixture  of  Judaism  and  Paganism,  of  belief 
in  God  and  belief  in  the  Virgin  Mary  and  in  Christ  as  God's 
son,  ideas  borrowed  from  their  old  belief  in  idols.  It  is  still 
that.  Sometimes  it  is  nearly  Jewish.  At  other  times  it  is 
nearly  pagan. 

If  Jesus  had  been  truly  the  Messiah  and  had  brought  peace 
to  all  nations,  the  Jews  would  have  kept  their  independence  and 
their  life  without  a  struggle.  But  they  knew  that  time  had  not 
come.  They  must  resist  destruction. 

Bitterness  and  oppression  increased,  until,  at  last,  driven  to 
desperation  by  cruel  governors,  the  Sadducees  and  the  Zealots 
— who  were  wild  patriots — rebelled  and  fought  madly  and  with 
high  courage.  But  Rome  was  too  strong.  In  the  year  70  C.  E., 
again  on  the  fearful  Ninth  of  Ab,  Jerusalem  and  the  temple  were 
destroyed  by  flames.  Our  country  was  lost  to  us;  our  holy 
city  desolate. 

V.    THE  LONG  SIEGE. 

But  from  the  ruins  crept  one  with  the  seed  of  our  nation 
in  his  heart.  One  of  the  great  teachers,  Jochanan  ben  Zakkai, 
secretly  left  Jerusalem  during  the  siege — he  was  carried  out  in 
a  coffin  by  his  pupils,  as  if  he  were  dead — went  to  the  Roman 
general  and  begged  to  be  allowed  to  found  a  Jewish  school  in 
Jamnia.  He  received  permission.  And  so,  the  first  general  in 
the  fearful  mental  struggle  to  maintain  the  Jewish  people — a 
struggle  in  which  we  are  each  one  to-day  a  soldier  or  a  deserter 
— he  gathered  disciples  about  him  and  began  to  train  that  army 
that  at  last  must  march,  victorious  without  bloodshed,  back  into 
the  holy  land  of  its  forefathers.  He  was  a  Pharisee,  a  national- 
ist. For  a  long  time,  here  and  there,  the  Jews  still  rebelled  and 
fought,  for  they  loved  their  country  desperately.  But  they  were 
beaten.  The  struggle  of  the  swords  was  ended,  and  the  struggle 
of  the  mind  begun. 

Besides  the  Bible,  their  greatest  fortress  and  weapon  in  this 
mental  fight,  the  Rabbis  also  had  the  Mishnah  or  oral  law.  The 
Mishnah,  or  spoken  law,  explained  the  laws  in  the  Torah  to  make 
them  fit  special  cases.  For  the  Jews,  a  democratic  people,  have 
the  right  to  make  by-laws  to  their  constitution,  and  to  interpret 
it.  This  Mishnah  had  never  been  written.  But  when  the  Rabbis 
in  Palestine  were  persecuted  and  were  killed  for  teaching  Juda- 
ism, then  Rabbi  Judah  I,  fearing  lest  all  the  teachers  die,  and 
the  Mishnah  be  wholly  lost,  wrote  for  the  future  all  these  spoken 
laws.  Still  wherever  they  could  the  Jews  studied  and  studied. 
Their  standing  army  was  not  soldiers  but  teachers.  Their  head- 
quarters came  to  be  in  Babylonia,  where  many  Jews  were  living 
in  comfort  and  freedom.  Here  they  governed  themselves  and 
had  a  "prince  of  the  exile."  Here  they  founded  two  schools, 
or  academies,  at  Sora  and  at  Pumbaditha,  where  they  studied, 

14 


and  wrote  those  commentaries  on  the  Mishnah  which  together 
with  the  Mishnah  came  to  be  called  the  Babylonian  Talmud. 
This  was  their  second  great  weapon  and  fortress  in  the  terrible 
time  to  come. 

Later  the  Babylonian  Jews  also  were  persecuted,  until  they 
could  not  keep  their  footing  in  that  country.  In  the  llth  cen- 
tury their  schools  come  to  an  end.  Now  their  camp,  their  head- 
quarters, had  to  be  shifted  to  some  other  land,  until  there  too 
they  should  be  besieged  and  destroyed.  For  at  this  time  Jews 
were  living  all  over  the  world.  Always  their  hope  and  their 
longing  was  toward  Jerusalem.  Everywhere  they  were 
strangers  or  else  ceased  to  be  Jews.  The  mental  battle  con- 
tinued. And  the  weak  ones  deserted  and  the  strong  ones  some- 
times died  for  their  faith,  but  they  left  their  children  or  their 
pupils  to  continue  the  fight. 

These  have  been  some  of  the  chief  temporary  camps  of 
Jewish  learning  and  prosperity  from  that  day  to  this :  Alexandria 
(in  Africa),  Spain,  Portugal,  France,  Poland,  Germany  and 
America.  Why  were  the  camps  changed?  Because  in  each, 
after  a  certain  time  of  freedom,  the  Jews  became  too  prosperous 
or  too  plentiful  to  suit  the  "nations",  and  so  as  foreigners  they 
were  envied,  persecuted,  shamed,  and  often  murdered  or  driven 
out.  Even  when  they  did  not  call  themselves  foreigners,  the 
world  called  them  so.  For  every  one  knew  their  home  was 
Palestine.  Their  religion  taught  them  that  as  a  holy  nation  in 
that  holy  land  they  were  to  be  a  light  unto  the  nations.  And 
Palestine  itself,  now  in  the  hands  of  one  country,  now  of  another, 
now  under  Christian  rule,  now  under  the  rule  of  those  Moham- 
medans whose  religion,  born  in  the  7th  century,  was  also  an 
offshoot  of  Judaism,  Palestine  itself  never  prospered  from  the 
day  its  children  left  it  until  this  day,  when  again  it  begins  to 
flourish  under  the  hand  of  a  few  hopeful,  brave  Jews,  working 
as  well  as  praying,  who  are  there  clearing  the  way — a  green  way 
of  farms  and  schools  and  colonies — for  our  Messianic  time. 

But  what  happened  to  the  Jews  during  their  two  thousand 
years  of  wandering? 

Many  were  their  dreams  and  delusions,  the  deliriums  of  a 
painful  fever.  They  hoped  so  fervently  for  a  Messia/h  that 
often  they  were  deceived  by  pretended  Messiahs.  They  copied 
the  ideas  of  their  neighbors.  During  the  dark  ages  of  history 
arose  the  "Kabbala",  a  strange,  semi-Christian,  mystic  form  of 
Judaism.  But  they  returned  to  sane  Judaism;  some  of  them  al- 
ways preserved  for  us  the  truth. 

In  Spain  in  early  times  the  Jews  were  so  great  that  they 
ruled  at  the  side  of  princes;  they  were  poets,  court-physicians, 
and  councilors.  They  were  rich  and  wise  and  learned  and  re- 
spected, and  they  thought  themselves  Spaniards.  Suddenly  the 
prince  changed,  the  Christian  clergy  or  the  Popes  prevailed,  the 
Jews  were  persecuted,  robbed,  shamed,  murdered.  Worse  than 

15 


all,  they  were  forced  to  become  Christians,  and  then  if  in  natural 
weakness  they  preferred  this  to  death,  they  were  hounded  and 
spied  upon  lest  they  turn  again  to  Judaism.  The  least  sign,  a 
Sabbath  kept,  a  child  circumcised,  and  they  were  burnt  at  the 
stake  as  heretics.  The  country  they  had  helped  to  build  tor- 
tured them  as  a  reward — for  it  was  not  their  own  country. 

In  the  llth  and  12th  centuries  a  "religious"  fever  swept 
over  Christian  Europe.  Then  were  fought  the  crusades,  the 
"holy"  wars  to  win  back  Palestine  from  the  Mohammedans  for 
Christendom.  For  it  was  also  their  holy  land,  since  it  cradled 
Jesus.  As  they  desired  to  conquer  and  destroy  all  heretics — 
and  as  all  their  sins  were  to  be  forgiven  them  if  they  did  this 
virtuous  deed  of  blood — they  naturally  began  with  the  Jews  in 
Europe.  In  every  country,  from  England  to  Spain,  from  Spain 
to  Palestine,  thousands  upon  thousands  of  Jews,  men,  women 
and  children,  were  horribly  murdered  by  the  passing  crusaders. 
Or  else  these  wretched  Jews  were  baptized  at  the  point  of  the 
sword.  Princes  who  valued  the  Jews  for  their  money  or  their 
skill  as  physicians  or  advisors,  tried  to  protect  them,  but  in  vain. 
The  blood-thirsty  mob  burned  and  robbed  and  murdered  to 
their  hearts'  content. 

As  the  Jews  were  foreigners  everywhere,  they  were  not 
allowed  to  be  ordinary  citizens  in  any  country.  Usually  they 
were  looked  upon  as  the  property  of  the  king  or  prince,  as  his 
slaves  or  his  special  wards.  As  they  might  not  own  lands  or 
carry  on  trades,  they  became  either  students  or  merchants;  and 
in  many  cases  they  were  forced  into  the  money-lending  business. 
The  king  or  prince  would  protect  the  Jews  while  they  were  get- 
ting rich,  and  then  find  some  excuse  for  robbing  them  of  the 
riches  thus  collected.  The  common  people  hated  the  Jews  for 
their  knowledge  and  their  riches,  or  because  they  were  money- 
lenders. From  every  side  the  Jews  had  the  worst  of  it.  And 
they  could  not  turn  to  their  own  country  for  protection,  for 
they  had  no  country.  How  they  yearned  and  prayed  for  Pales- 
tine and  hoped  for  a  second  Moses,  the  Messiah,  to  lead  them 
from  this  second  slavery !  But  they  had  not  the  courage  nor  the 
means  to  start  for  themselves. 

In  England  the  Jews  were  forbidden  to  own  land,  to  practice 
trades  or  professions,  or  to  do  anything  at  all  except  to  lend 
money  for  interest.  So  naturally  the  weaker  among  them  be- 
came criminals.  They  had  almost  no  choice  between  that  and 
death.  Therefore  in  1290  it  "became  necessary"  to  banish  them. 
Where  did  they  go?  Do  not  ask  that  dreadful  question.  Many 
went  to  their  death,  drowned  or  starved.  Others  found  a  tem- 
porary living  among  communities  of  Jews  whose  condition  at 
that  time  happened  to  be  better.  Hundreds  of  years  later,  in 
the  17th  century,  they  were  quietly,  almost  secretly,  allowed  to 
re-enter  England. 

16 


In  1492 — that  eventful  year — all  the  Jews  were  banished 
from  Spain,  hundreds  of  thousands  of  them !  How  the  ships 
could  not  hold  them,  how  they  were  turned  back  from  port 
after  port,  how  they  were  drowned,  starved,  murdered,  how 
they  carried  misery  and  disease  all  over  the  world — it  is  too 
horrible  to  tell !  Think  of  all  the  babies !  What  do  you  suppose 
became  of  most  of  them? 

Many  little  children  were  stolen  from  their  parents,  and 
educated  in  convents  as  Christians. 

Those  Jews  who  had  turned  Christian  were  allowed  to  stay 
in  Spain,  but  were  not  allowed  to  live  in  peace.  The  Inquisition, 
a  criminal  court  to  punish  heretics,  or  people  untrue  to  the  Chris- 
tian religion,  spied  out  these  Jews,  and  on  the  least  suspicion 
that  they  still  were  Jews,  tortured,  imprisoned,  or  burnt  them 
alive.  Their  property  went  to  the  king,  and  their  children  to 
the  convent. 

The  "Shma*  "  is  what  every  good  Jew  wishes  to  say  when 
he  is  dying.  But  when  a  Jew  pale  and  strong,  repeated  the 
"Shma' "  as  he  stood  among  the  flames,  this  aroused  the  sympa- 
thy of  the  crowd  that  watched  him.  Therefore  after  a  time  the 
Jews  were  burnt  with  their  mouths  tied. 

VI.  MODERN  TIMES. 

In  the  16th  century  a  wonderful  change  came  over  Europe. 
During  all  the  years  of  Christianity,  of  Catholicism,  the  Bible 
had  not  been  much  used  by  common  people.  Indeed,  it  existed 
only  in  Greek  and  Latin  and  other  translations,  except  among 
the  Jews.  They  had  preserved  the  Hebrew  Bible  for  the  world. 

At  this  time,  as  often  before,  the  Talmud  and  all  other 
Hebrew  books  were  brought  into  question  as  being  anti-Chris- 
tian. Not  only  Jews  but  Jewish  books,  their  chief  weapons, 
had  also  been  burned  many  times.  For  you  remember  the 
Jewish  army  was  its  scholars,  the  Jewish  ammunition  was  its 
books.  A  miserable  traitorous  converted  Jew  named  Pfeffer- 
korn,  in  the  pay  of  certain  Catholic  priests,  now  accused  the  Tal- 
mud of  being  anti-Christian.  Whereupon  a  German  Christian 
professor,  John  Reuchlin,  who  had  studied  the  Talmud  and  the 
Hebrew  Bible,  and  discovered  that  they  were  great  and  wonder- 
ful books,  proved  that  the  Talmud  was  not  anti-Christian.  This 
interested  many  Christian  scholars  who  began  to  study  Hebrew 
and  the  Bible. 

Soon  afterwards,  through  the  influence  of  many  other  stir- 
ring events,  a  large  body  of  Christians  broke  away  from  the 
Catholic  Church  under  the  leadership  of  Martin  Luther.  This 
was  called  the  Protestant  Reformation,  and  from  it  sprang  all 
those  other  Christian  sects  that  are  not  Catholic.  They  are 
nearer  Jewish  teaching  than  the  Catholic  religion,  for  they  fol- 
low the  Bible,  not  only  the  New  Testament  or  teaching  of  Jesus 
and  Paul,  but  also  the  Bible  of  the  Jews. 

17 


From  this  time  forward  the  nations  of  Europe,  which  for 
many  reasons  had  been  ignorant  and  had  not  advanced  in  knowl- 
edge for  hundreds  of  years,  began  to  awaken  and  to  progress 
rapidly. 

Not  so  the  Jews.  They  had  shut  themselves  in  their  ancient 
knowledge  as  in  a  fortress;  and  sometimes  it  became  their 
prison.  They  lived  in  their  Ghettos  separated  from  the  world. 
They  had  been  terribly  weakened  and  hurt  by  persecution;  for 
while  persecution  awakens  strength  and  heroism  in  certain  men 
and  women,  it  is  very  bad  for  a  people  to  be  persecuted  for  ages. 
They  become  afraid  and  shrink  like  a  beaten  dog.  They  lick 
the  hand  that  beats  them  and  try  to  please  and  even  to  imitate 
their  tormentors.  That  is  what  happened  to  some  of  the  Jews. 

In  1654  Joseph  Karo,  a  great  Jewish  rabbi,  wrote  a  book 
called  "Shulchan  Aruch"  or  "The  Table  Set  in  Order"  which 
contained  all  the  old  laws  of  Jewish  life  and  service.  The  Jew- 
ish people  accepted  it  as  their  standard.  This  was  the  last  time 
that  all  the  Jews  of  the  world  followed  one  leader,  as  a  demo- 
cratic people.  Since  then  they  have  been  too  scattered  and 
separated  democratically  to  revise  their  laws.  Observant  Jews 
to  this  day  follow  the  laws  of  the  "Shulchan  Aruch." 

The  Jews  continually  longed  and  prayed  for  their  return 
to  Zion,  but  they  had  been  so  weakened  and  disheartened  by 
their  suffering  that  they  did  not  have  the  courage  to  try  to  act 
for  themselves.  It  took  all  their  strength  just  to  remain  Jews. 
Besides,  they  made  the  terrible  mistake  of  being  prejudiced 
against  their  own  people ;  the  Jews  of  one  country  sometimes 
even  hated  the  Jews  of  another  country. 

Though  the  world  grew  wiser,  it  still  oppressed  the  Jews. 
They  had  for  ages  been  falsely  accused  of  a  hundred  crimes. 
When  there  was  a  plague  they  were  said  to  have  poisoned  the 
wells,  and  as  through  their  greater  cleanliness  they  escaped 
death  through  disease,  they  found  it  in  riot  and  massacre. 
Worst  of  all,  they  were  accused  of  murdering  Christian  boys 
to  use  their  blood  in  the  Passover  service.  They  were  tortured 
and  killed  for  a  crime  no  Jew  would  ever  commit.  Even  to-day 
one  still  hears  this  horrible  accusation. 

But  in  the  last  hundred  years,  since  the  French  Revolution, 
a  great  change  has  come  over  .the  Jewish  question  as  it  camie 
over  everything  else.  Gradually  in  Western  Europe,  as  demo- 
cratic ideas  came  into  the  world,  partly  through  certain  Jews 
themselves,  the  Jews  were  given  more  and  more  political  rights, 
and  bloody  persecution  stopped.  There  is  still  prejudice — men- 
tal persecution — but  Jews  are  no  longer  actually  robbed  and 
murdered  for  being  Jews. 

In  Eastern  Europe,  in  Russia  and  in  some  of  the  Balkan 
states,  where  most  of  the  Jews  of  the  world  live  to-day  and 
where  democracy  has  not  yet  awakened,  the  Jews  are  perse- 
cuted as  they  always  were  persecuted.  Never  before  have  so 

18 


many  Jews  suffered,  or  suffered  more  terrible  tortures  than 
during  this  great  European  war. 

And  what  of  the  Western  Jews  themselves  ?  One  can  be  en- 
nobled by  bodily  persecution,  by  bravely  facing  torture  and  even 
death.  But  there  is  nothing  ennobling  in  being  kept  out  of  a  uni- 
versity, a  high  government  position,  or  a  summer  hotel.  Many 
Jews  are  constantly  turning  Christian,  or  at  least  losing  every- 
thing that  makes  them  Jews,  in  order  that  they  may  be  allowed  to 
do  these  things.  About  a  hundred  years  ago  some  German  Jews 
said  "Now  that  we  are  allowed  to  be  Germans  we  must  not  be 
too  patriotic  as  Jews,  lest  the  Germans  doubt  our  loyalty  to 
them.  We  will  no  longer  pray  for  the  restoration  of  Zion." 
They  gave  up  many  Jewish  forms  and  customs,  because  they 
no  longer  considered  themselves  part  of  the  whole  Jewish  people. 
Many  of  them  married  Christians.  These  Jews  say,  "Judaism 
is  only  a  religion."  But  they  have  forgotten  that  important 
part  of  the  Jewish  religion  which  says  that  the  Jews  are  to  be  a 
nation  in  the  service  of  God. 

The  Jew  out  of  his  Ghetto,  rich,  learned,  un-Jewish,  un- 
Zionistic,  is  still  defamed  in  Western  Europe.  A  Dreyfus  in 
France  was  falsely  and  horribly  accused  of  treason,  simply  be- 
cause he  was  a  Jew.  German  universities  restrict  the  number 
of  their  Jewish  students;  and  ever  goes  up  the  cry,  "After  all, 
they  are  aliens !" 

The  story  of  America  is  quite  special.  You  remember  that 
America  was  discovered  in  that  year  in  which  the  Jews  were 
banished  from  Spain.  And  very  soon  America  began  to  be  a 
refuge  to  them  as  to  all  others  when  they  fled  from  persecution. 
You  know  how  to-day  thousands  upon  thousands  of  Russian 
Jews  are  struggling  to  reach  our  shores.  I  need  not  tell  you 
how  much  or  how  little  prejudice,  how  much  or  how  little  free- 
dom there  is  in  America.  You  can  judge  that  for  yourselves. 
But  I  can  tell  you  the  reason  why  Jews  are  better  off  in  America 
than  in  any  other  country  in  the  world.  It  is  because  America 
is  now  a  nation  of  foreigners.  Therefore  the  Jews  among  other 
foreigners  are  not  in  a  strange  position.  In  America  we  have 
begun  to  see  that  one  can  be  loyal  to  more  than  one  country. 
We  can  work  both  for  America  and  for  Zion.  Indeed  the  truer 
Jews  we  are  the  truer  Americans  we  can  be,  for  America  needs 
what  religion  and  social  ideas  the  Jew  can  give  her  through  his 
love  for  Zion.  And  Palestine  needs  the  strength,  courage, 
scientific  knowledge  of  the  American  Jew.  We  gave  the  Bible 
to  the  world.  Now,  by  the  example  and  activity  of  our  restored 
Zion,  we  must  show  the  nations  that  democracy  and  religion 
are  one.  We  must  teach  the  world  the  brotherhood  of  nations. 

Already  America  is  complaining  that  too  many  Eastern 
Jews  are  coming  to  her  shores;  for  America  does  not  wish  to 
be  the  Jewish  nation,  and  she  knows  the  Jews  are  a  people.  Let 

19 


us  turn  the  stream  southward.     Let  our  Eastern  Jews  return  to 
Palestine,  where  the  land  they  long  for  is  also  longing  for  them. 

VII.     ZIONISM. 

And  now  I  come  to  the  last  words  of  our  history,  those 
words  that  lead  us  on  into  the  future.  I  come  to  Palestine. 
Throughout  the  ages  some  Jews  have  always  dwelt  in  Palestine, 
all  Jews  have  longed  for  Zion  and  hoped  and  prayed  for  her 
redemption  even  in  the  bitter  days  when  not  a  Jew  dared  enter 
Jerusalem.  A  few  pious  Jews  have  ever  found  it  possible  to  re- 
turn to  Palestine  to  live  and  die  there,  strangers  in  their  own 
land.  But  in  spite  of  the  fearful  hope  and  disappointment  in- 
flamed by  many  false  Messiahs,  no  successful  efforts  were  ever 
made  to  rebuild  Palestine  as  a  Jewish  home  until  within  the  last 
twenty  years  of  the  19th  century. 

While  political  freedom  made  some  Jews  forget  their  own 
people,  and  like  Essau  sell  their  birthright  for  a  mess  of  pottage, 
in  other  stronger  and  more  heroic  natures  it  awakened  only 
greater  love  for  their  suffering  brothers,  and  new  hope  for  their 
devastated  land.  About  1880  some  Russian  students,  amid 
dreadful  hardships,  started  the  first  Palestinian  colony.  Others 
followed.  Then  in  1897  Theodore  Herzl,  who  himself  lived  in 
free  Western  Europe,  began  the  Zionist  Movement  in  order  to 
obtain  for  the  Jewish  people,  with  proper  guarantees,  a  publicly, 
legally  assured  home  in  Palestine.  We  want  to  govern  our- 
selves in  our  own  land.  We  do  not  care  who  is  emperor,  for 
the  Jews  have  only  one  King.  And  as  the  Turks  have  almost 
always  befriended  the  Jews,  we  are  quite  willing  to  belong  to 
their  empire.  Herzl  died  when  his  great  task  was  only  begun. 
But  the  work  did  not  end  with  him.  It  grows  and  grows.  The 
colonies  blossom  and  bear  fruit.  The  trade  of  Palestine  has 
trebled  in  less  than  twenty  years;  the  speech  of  our  Bible, 
Hebrew,  is  again  spoken  in  school  and  street  and  farm ;  the  holy 
land  again  can  keep  its  Sabbaths,  not  the  long  Sabbath  of  deso- 
lation, but  the  short  Sabbaths  of  praise  and  joy.  For  the  land 
knows  its  people  and  rejoices  once  more. 

The  land  that  once  was  fertile  can  surely  bloom  again.  It 
still  stands  between  the  nations,  a  gateway  of  peace  between 
Europe  and  Asia,  a  highway  for  the  world.  Let  us  make  it  our 
own  land  once  more.  Then  even  if  we  are  strangers  elsewhere, 
we  will  be  strangers  with  a  country  to  which  we  can  turn  if  we 
are  wronged  and  from  which  we  can  repay  what  we  receive. 
Then  we  will  no  longer  be  beggars  but  guests.  Then  we  will 
know  what  it  means  to  be  a  Jew.  Then  will  our  new  prophets 
arise,  and  all  the  world  rejoice  in  them.  For  since  we  have  left 
Zion  we  have  not  been  great ;  the  strongest  of  us  have  only  held 
our  own,  and  the  weakest  have  been  altogether  lost.  Our  land, 
too,  has  only  waited,  waited  for  us. 

20 


THE    JEWISH    PROBLEM 

BY  D.  DE  SOLA  POOL. 

THE  PROBLEM  FOR  OUR  NEIGHBORS. 

What  does  the  world  mean  when  it  talks  about  the  Jewish 
problem  ? 

The  people  of  Russia  talk  of  a  Jewish  problem  in  Russia. 
The  Poles  talk  of  a  Jewish  problem  in  Poland.  Englishmen  talk 
of  a  Jewish  problem  in  England,  and  the  people  of  the  United 
States  are  beginning  to  talk  of  a  Jewish  problem  in  the  United 
States. 

Why  should  we  Jews  everywhere  be  a  problem  to  the  rest 
of  the  world?  The  Russian  is  not  a  problem  in  Russia,  the  Pole 
is  not  a  problem  in  Poland,  nor  the  Englishman  in  England,  nor 
the  American  in  the  United  States.  No  people  is  a  problem  in 
its  own  land.  It  is  only  the  people  of  foreign  race  in  a  land 
who  are  a  problem  to  that  land.  For  example,  the  Japanese  and 
the  Chinese  who  are  settled  in  the  Western  States  of  the  United 
States  constituted  no  problem  while  in  their  own  lands.  But 
since  they  have  come  in  large  numbers  to  California  and  other 
Western  States,  they  have  become  a  serious  problem  to  the 
United  States. 

Similarly,  the  world  everywhere  regards  us  Jews  as  a  prob- 
lem because  everywhere  we  are  different  from  other  peoples 
and  strange  in  our  appearance,  our  race,  our  habits,  our  tradi- 
tions and  our  religion.  In  every  generation  of  our  Golus  or 
dispersion  among  the  nations  of  the  world,  we  have  been  a 
problem  to  these  nations. 

In  the  far  away  days  of  ancient  Persia,  Haman  described 
the  Jewish  problem  to  the  king  as  consisting  in  the  fact  that  the 
Jews  are  "a  people  in  all  the  provinces  of  Persia,  but  their  laws 
are  different  from  those  of  every  other  race  *  *  *  and  it  is 
not  proper  for  the  king  to  tolerate  them." 

Throughout  the  Middle  Ages,  our  ancestors  suffered  terrible 
persecutions,  because  everywhere  they  were  strangers  without 
rights.  In  modern  times,  although  we  have  obtained  political 
rights  in  most  lands,  we  are  still  different  from  our  neighbors. 
Persecution,  which  was  the  medieval  world's  solution  of  the 
Jewish  problem,  still  finds  favor  in  the  eyes  of  Russia  as  the 
best  means  of  solving  the  Jewish  problem  in  that  land  where 
half  the  Jews  of  the  world  live.  In  other  lands,  the  different 

21 


peoples  try  to  solve  the  Jewish  problem  by  political  anti- 
semitism,  by  restrictive  immigration  laws  or  by  varying  ex- 
pressions of  prejudice.  Everywhere  we  are  regarded  by  non- 
Jews  as  a  problem. 

The  situation  is  rendered  the  more  painful  for  us  because  of 
the  fact  that  we  have  no  home-land  of  our  own  in  which  we  can 
settle  without  being  a  problem  to  someone  else.  In  whatever 
remote  corner  of  the  world  we  choose  to  settle  in  appreciable 
numbers,  we  are  always  strange  to  the  people  of  the  land  so 
long  as  we  remain  Jews,  and  we  are  therefore  everywhere  gen- 
erating local  outbreaks  of  the  Jewish  problem.  In  this  way,  as 
we  have  been  scattered  North,  South,  East  and  West,  we  have 
carried  the  Jewish  problem  with  us  all  over  the  world.  Whither 
can  we  go  to  escape  persecution?  Whither  can  we  flee  to  be 
free  of  anti-semitism?  Wherever  we  go,  prejudice  and  anti- 
semitism  follow  us.  We  are  a  people  without  a  home,  a  race  of 
wandering  Jews  looking  everywhere  in  vain  for  rest.  If  the 
Japanese  is  not  welcomed  in  California,  he  may  go  back  to  Japan. 
If  the  Hindoo  is  not  permitted  to  enter  Canada,  he  may  return 
to  India,  where  he  is  at  home.  Other  peoples  of  the  world  can 
escape  becoming  a  problem  to  their  neighbors  by  the  simple  ex- 
pedient of  staying  at  home  in  their  own  lands.  We  only  are 
compelled  to  be  a  problem  to  our  neighbors  everywhere,  because 
we  have  no  home  land  to  which  we  may  retire  or  in  which  we 
may  remain. 

Dr.  Theodor  Herzl  and  other  Jewish  thinkers  who  founded 
the  modern  Zionist  movement,  therefore  said  to  the  nations  of 
the  world:  "The  real  solution  of  your  Jewish  problem  lies  in 
giving  back  to  us  Jews  our  own  home-land.  Not  all  the  Jews 
would  return  to  this  land,  and  you  would  not  rid  yourselves  of 
all  your  Jews.  But  you  would  relieve  yourselves  of  your  acute 
Jewish  problem  by  making  it  possible  for  many  Jews  to  emigrate 
to  their  own  home-land  in  order  to  escape  ill-will.  If,  like  Rus- 
sia, you  persecute  the  Jews  living  in  your  land,  then  the  Jews 
who  wished  to  escape  persecution  at  your  hands  could  take 
refuge  in  their  own  land  and  be  safe  in  their  own  home,  instead 
of  going  to  some  other  land  and  becoming  a  problem  there.  At 
the  present  time,  since  we  Jews  have  no  home,  persecuting  Rus- 
sia drives  us  out  and  we  go  perforce  to  Germany,  to  Switzerland, 
to  France,  to  England,  to  America  and  to  other  countries,  and 
eventually  grow  numerous  there  like  our  ancestors  in  Egypt 
and  become  a  burden  to  those  lands.  We  wish  to  avoid  being 
driven  round  the  world  in  a  vicious  circle,  like  schnorrers  who  are 
sent  on  from  village  to  village  and  from  town  to  town  because 
no  one  wishes  them  to  stay  and  no  one  gives  them  a  welcome. 
If  therefore,  you  nations  of  the  world  really  wish  to  know  how 
to  solve  this  Jewish  problem,  which  seems  to  you  to  be  so  difficult 
and  which  troubles  you  so  sorely,  we  can  tell  you  how  this  can 
be  done  very  simply : — give  to  us  or  sell  to  us  or  allow  us  to  gain 

22 


control  of  our  own  home-land  so  that  we  need  not  crowd  into 
your  lands.  You  will  then  be  the  happier  and  we  shall  be  the 
happier.  We  ask  for  a  fair  opportunity  of  living  in  our  own  land 
without  being  obliged  to  take  up  our  residence  with  you  if  you 
do  not  desire  us.  We  do  not  ask  a  favor,  we  ask  justice.  But 
we  can  never  be  satisfied  with  a  land  of  refuge  in  East  Africa  or 
South  America.  There  is  only  one  land  that  we  call  ours,  and 
that  is  the  land  of  our  hope,  the  land  of  our  ancestors,  the  land 
made  sacred  by  our  past  and  by  our  Bible,  by  all  our  traditions, 
by  our  prayers  and  our  tears,  the  Promised  Land,  the  land  of 
Palestine.  If  we  can  be  given  the  opportunity  to  make  that  land 
our  own,  we  shall  solve  for  you  the  Jewish  problem  of  which 
you  complain." 

THE  PROBLEM  FOR  OURSELVES. 

The  aspect  of  the  Jewish  problem  that  we  have  just  con- 
sidered, the  problem  that  our  neighbors  feel,  is  not  of  so  much 
importance  as  the  other  aspect  of  the  Jewish  problem — our  own 
problem.  The  problem  that  our  neighbors  face  is  merely  how  to 
live  more  comfortably  with  the  Jews  who  dwell  in  their  midst. 
The  problem  that  we  face  is  how  to  preserve  ourselves  from 
Jewish  death. 

For  living  as  we  do  everywhere  in  non-Jewish  surroundings, 
we  are  confronted  by  the  question  of  national  life  or  national 
death.  Charles  Darwin  made  it  clear  that  flowers,  animals,  men 
and  any  living  organisms  flourish  best  in  the  surroundings  that 
are  best  suited  to  them.  Since  competition  in  life  is  so  strong,  only 
those  flowers,  animals  or  men  which  are  best  adapted  to  their 
environment  can  hope  to  survive,  while  those  living  organisms 
that  are  out  of  place  and  not  in  keeping  with  the  conditions  in 
which  they  find  themselves  will  eventually  disappear.  We  Jews, 
not  having  our  own  home  and  being  everywhere  more  or  less 
out  of  place  and  unfitted  for  the  non- Jewish  conditions  in  which 
we  find  ourselves,  are  therefore  faced  with  the  danger  of  dis- 
appearing, unless  we  create  for  ourselves  our  own  national  center 
where  we  can  be  at  home  and  can  live  in  an  harmonious  Jewish 
environment.  In  our  physical  life,  in  our  cultural  life  and  in  our 
religious  life  in  the  non-Jewish  surroundings  of  our  dispersion, 
we  are  everywhere  at  a  disadvantage,  and  since  we  cannot  hope 
to  win  ultimately  against  such  heavy  disadvantages,  we  are 
threatened  with  the  defeat  that  ultimately  means  our  extinction 
as  Jews. 

Before  examining  what  are  the  physical,  the  cultural  and 
the  spiritual  disadvantages  under  which  we  are  laboring  and 
which  create  for  us  the  Jewish  problem  which  menaces  our  Jew- 
ish existence,  it  is  perhaps  necessary  to  make  clear  that  this 
problem  is  a  comparatively  new  one  for  us.  Non-Zionists  argue 
that  since  we  have  managed  to  survive  as  Jews  without  a  na- 
tional home-land  for  nearly  two  thousand  years,  there  is  no 

23 


reason  why  we  should  not  continue  to  exist  as  Jews  for  another 
two  thousand  or  even  twenty  thousand  years.  But  they  forget 
how  cruelly  unhappy  our  nineteen  hundred  years  of  homeless- 
ness  have  been.  We  Jews  have  not  lost  our  courage ;  but  the 
prospect  of  having  to  live  for  an  indefinite  number  of  centuries 
through  agonies  of  bitter  hatred,  relentless  persecution,  un- 
speakable torture,  inhuman  outrage  and  bloody  martyrdom  simi- 
lar to  the  sufferings  that  we  have  passed  through,  is  an  outlook 
before  which  the  stoutest-hearted  people  might  quail. 

Moreover,  the  argument  that  we  shall  always  survive  as  a 
people  because  we  have  survived  so  far,  is  just  as  illogical  as 
would  be  the  argument  of  a  man  that  because  he  has  lived  until 
now  without  dying,  he  will  always  continue  to  live.  To  read 
the  history  of  the  nineteen  hundred  years  of  our  dispersion  is  to 
read  the  history  of  the  disappearance  of  great  communities  of 
Jews  and  the  loss  of  hundreds  of  thousands  and  even  millions 
of  our  people  either  by  massacre  or  by  apostasy.  Millions  of 
Jews  have  been  either  slowly  or  forcibly  converted  to  Christian- 
ity or  Mohammedanism  during  our  Golus.  But  in  the  past,  not- 
withstanding the  great  drain  of  Jewish  blood,  we  have  always 
been  preserved  by  a  loyal  remnant  that  carried  on  the  history  of 
the  Jewish  people.  However  many  Jews  escaped  through  the 
walls  of  the  Ghetto  and  became  Christians,  a  remnant  of  loyal 
Jews  was  assured  to  us.  But  during  the  last  century,  most  of 
the  Ghetto  walls  have  been  broken  down,  and  now  we  Jews  are 
slowly  or  rapidly  turning  our  backs  on  our  Jewish  people  and 
are  becoming  lost  to  the  Jewish  people  and  to  Judaism.  Only 
in  Russia  and  Roumania  are  conditions  still  largely  as  they 
were  in  the  middle  ages,  and  in  those  lands  Judaism  and  the 
Jewish  national  feeling  are  still  relatively  strong.  But  in  lands 
where  we  enjoy  political  freedom  we  are  in  danger  of  disap- 
pearing as  Jews  and  our  problem  is  the  problem  of  how  to 
preserve  ourselves. 

OUR  PHYSICAL  PROBLEM. 

In  every  phase  of  our  physical  life  among  non-Jewish  peo- 
ples we  are  under  great  disadvantages  as  Jews.  The  Jew  is  not 
popular,  as  we  have  seen,  because  he  is  a  stranger.  To  look 
like  a  Jew  is  therefore  to  draw  down  prejudice  on  oneself.  To 
have  a  Jewish  name  is  to  invite  ridicule  and  prejudice.  To  be 
known  as  a  Jew  means  to  have  to  fight  down  opposition  in  busi- 
ness, and  to  resign  oneself  to  having  no  participation  in  a  large 
number  of  pleasures  and  occupations  in  which  one  would  like 
to  indulge.  Everywhere,  even  in  so-called  free  lands,  Jews  are 
discriminated  against.  Jewish  boys  and  girls  meet  ill  will  at 
school  and  are  taunted  and  made  to  suffer  because  they  are 
Jews.  They  find  themselves  as  a  rule  unwelcome  in  the  school 
or  college  societies.  When  they  go  out  into  business,  they  find 
it  harder  to  obtain  positions  than  do  their  non-Jewish  com- 

24 


panions.  If  they  set  themselves  up  in  business  or  in  a  profes- 
sion, they  soon  find  that  many  people  do  not  care  to  deal  with 
them.  Not  only  in  their  work,  but  also  in  their  play,  life  is 
harder  for  them  because  they  are  Jews.  For  when  they  wish 
to  join  a  club  or  go  to  a  summer  hotel,  they  are  likely  to  find 
themselves  excluded  because  they  are  Jews. 

The  Jewish  weaklings  escape  these  difficulties  and  make 
life  easier  for  themselves  by  hiding  or  disguising  the  fact  of 
their  being  Jews.  Thus  they  change  their  names  from  Moses 
Cohen  or  Sarah  Levy  to  Maurice  Collins  or  Sadie  Lewis,  and 
in  every  way  try  to  cover  up  the  fact  of  their  Jewish  affiliations. 
But  it  is  impossible  to  be  constantly  acting  a  part  without 
finally  living  the  part,  and  these  timorous  and  runaway  Jews 
very  rapidly  put  themselves  or  their  children  outside  of  Jewish 
life.  In  this  way  we  are  more  or  less  quickly  losing  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  Jews  from  Jewish  life. 

It  is  particularly  the  Zionist  who  consistently  and  per- 
sistently refuses  to  gloss  over  the  fact  of  his  being  a  Jew. 
Instead  of  sharnefacedly  keeping  quiet  about  his  being  a  Jew, 
instead  of  furtively  changing  his  Jewish  name,  and  instead  of 
being  content  to  pass  unrecognized  as  a  Jew,  the  Zionist,  glow- 
ing with  Jewish  pride,  steadfastly  insists  at  all  times  on  his 
self-respect  as  a  Jew.  He  is  proud  of  his  people  and  believes 
in  this  people's  future.  He  is  therefore  not  willing  to  cut  him- 
self off  from  his  Jewish  people  even  for  a  moment.  Just  as  the 
Englishman  or  the  German,  wherever  he  may  be,  does  not 
dream  of  shamefacedly  denying  that  he  is  English  or  German, 
but  glories  in  his  being  a  member  of  so  great  a  people,  so  the 
Zionist  Jew,  in  whatever  land  he  may  be,  scorns  to  deny  or 
cover  up  the  fact  of  his  being  a  Jew  and  openly  glories  in  his 
belonging  to  so  great  a  people. 

Our  Jewish  problem  on  its  physical  side  is  therefore  seen 
to  arise  from  the  fact  that,  having  no  home-land  of  our  own 
where  we  can  be  Jewish  without  prejudice,  we  are  not  adapted 
to  our  non-Jewish  environments.  In  accordance  with  Darwin's 
law  of  the  survival  of  those  best  fitted  for  the  environment,  non- 
Zionists  are  trying  to  make  themselves  un-Jewish  so  that  they 
may  the  better  fit  their  un-Jewish  surroundings.  How  tragic 
and  how  disastrous  is  such  a  policy  for  our  people !  How  little 
hope  it  gives  for  our  survival  as  Jews !  And  how  fine  and  brave 
is  the  Zionist  protest  against  this  policy  of  weakness  and  deser- 
tion! 

OUR  CULTURAL  PROBLEM. 

But  our  problem  goes  yet  deeper  than  these  important 
externals  of  our  physical  life.  Our  inward  Jewish  life  is  also 
threatened  with  extinction.  In  past  centuries  Jewish  boys  and 
girls  were  usually  given  a  good  Jewish  training.  They  knew 

25 


ana  loved  the  great  names  of  Jewish  history.  They  were  taught 
to  understand  Hebrew  and  they  read,  thought  and  felt  as  Jews. 
An  alien  who  wishes  to  become  an  American  citizen  is  expected 
to  know  something  about  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States, 
the  Declaration  of  Independence,  Washington,  Lincoln  and  the 
greatest  figures  of  American  history  ana  what  America  has 
stood  for.  The  Jew  of  olden  days  knew  something  about  our 
Jewish  constitution — the  Bible  and  the  Talmud;  he  knew  about 
our  declarations  of  independence — Passover,  Chanuka  and  our 
history  of  martyrdom;  he  knew  our  Washingtons  and  Lincolns 
— Moses,  David,  Amos,  Isaiah,  Jeremiah,  Ezra,  Judas  Macca- 
baeus,  Hillel,  Akiba,  Jehuda  Halevi,  Maimonides  and  many 
other  heroes  of  our  past.  But  the  Jews  of  today  are  like  aliens 
in  Jewry.  They  do  not  know  their  own  Hebrew,  their  own 
Bible,  their  own  Talmud,  their  own  history  or  their  own  re- 
ligion, and  every  year  they  are  neglecting  these  more  and  more. 
Every  year  they  are  learning  and  thinking  less  and  less  as  Jews 
and  more  and  more  as  non-Jews. 

Our  great  men  in  the  past,  such  as  those  just  mentioned, 
were  great  as  Jews.  Our  great  men  of  today  are,  as  a  rule, 
Jewishly  insignificant.  The  great  painters,  sculptors,  musicians, 
scientists,  physicians,  jurists,  authors,  actors  and  business  mag- 
nates whom  we  Jews  are  giving  to  the  world  in  ever-increasing 
numbers  are  usually  men  who  have  ceased  to  be  interested  in 
Jewish  life  and  achievement,  and  who  do  not  paint,  think,  write 
or  work  as  Jews.  They  paint  the  pictures,  compose  the  songs, 
write  the  books,  build  up  the  commerce  and  write  the  laws  of 
other  peoples  instead  of  for  their  own  Jewish  people.  They 
give  their  splendid  ability  to  peoples  who  usually  despise  them 
as  Jews,  and  they  deprive  their  own  needy  Jewish  people  of 
the  fruits  of  their  great  gifts.  In  grotesque  inversion  of  the 
Biblical  law,  we  are  giving  away  our  rich  harvest  to  the  stran- 
gers and  leaving  only  the  corner  of  the  field  for  ourselves.  Our 
famous  Jews  succeed  in  the  world  at  the  sacrifice  of  their  Jew- 
ishness.  The  most  famous  of  these  "Jews,"  such  as  Disraeli, 
Felix  Mendelssohn,  Heine,  Karl  Marx,  Sarah  Bernhardt,  have 
not  been  Jews  at  all  by  religion,  but  have  been  baptized  into 
Christianity. 

It  is  the  Zionists  who  insist  at  all  times  that  it  is  the  poor, 
suffering  Jewish  people  that  most  urgently  needs  the  loyal,  lov- 
ing services  of  its  own  sons  and  daughters.  It  is  the  Zionists 
who  insist  that  Jews  and  Jewesses  owe  their  first  duty  to  the 
solving  of  the  problems  of  their  own  Jewish  people.  It  is  the 
Zionists  who  insist  that  we  Jews  still  have  our  own  language — 
Hebrew,  our  own  Jewish  literature,  culture,  ideas  and  ideals, 
and  that  it  is  treachery  to  our  past,  to  our  present  and  to  our 
future  lightly  to  throw  these  overboard.  It  is  the  Zionists  who 
insist  that  it  is  not  necessary  to  de-Judaize  oneself  in  order  to 
be  a  good  citizen  of  a  non-Jewish  land,  and  that,  on  the  con- 

26 


trary,  the  more  loyal  and  true  the  Jew  remains  to  his  Jewish 
traditions,  the  better  citizen  he  is  to  the  country  in  which  he 
lives. 

But  with  our  famous  and  our  cleverest  men  leaving  us  on 
all  sides,  with  most  of  the  rest  of  us  forgetting  our  own  Jewish 
learning  and  culture,  what  hope  have  we  of  effectively  working 
for  our  own  people  and  our  own  ideals  and  of  preserving  our 
Hebrew  language,  our  own  literature,  our  Jewish  culture  and 
our  Jewish  thought?  Every  true  people  lovingly  guards  and 
stands  for  its  own  language,  literature,  culture,  ideas  and  ideals, 
regarding  them  as  its  most  treasured  and  proudest  possessions. 
We  Jews  are  basely  giving  up  our  own  language,  literature, 
culture,  ideas  and  ideals  and  are  thereby  giving  up  both  our  rea- 
son for  existence  and  our  hope  of  survival.  This  is  our  cul- 
tural Jewish  problem,  a  problem  that  only  the  Zionist  seems 
to  see  clearly  and  that  only  the  Zionist  is  attempting  to  solve 
with  any  hope  of  success. 

OUR  SPIRITUAL   PROBLEM. 

But  yet  deeper  and  even  more  serious  is  the  last  phase  of 
our  Jewish  problem — the  problem  of  our  religious  survival.  If 
we  Jews  can  lay  any  claim  to  greatness  in  the  past,  it  is  be- 
cause of  the  religious  ideas  that  we  gave  to  the  world.  We 
were  the  instrument  chosen  for  presenting  the  world  with  the 
ten  commandments  and  the  Bible  with  its  wonderful  Torah  or 
law  of  Moses,  its  magnificent  prophetic  teachings  of  right  and 
wrong  and  its  unsurpassed  Psalms  and  other  sacred  writings. 
The  purpose  of  our  original  choice  as  a  people  and  of  our  sub- 
sequent existence  was  to  set  before  the  world  the  purest  ideals 
of  religion  and  to  stand  in  the  world  as  witnesses  to  that  re- 
ligion. This  purpose  our  ancestors  carried  out  bravely  and 
nobly,  however  much  persecution  and  martyrdom  their  being 
Jews  brought  down  upon  them.  They  were  the  suffering 
servant  of  God.  But  so  long  as  they  knew  that  they  were  God's 
witnesses,  they  were  content  to  suffer  in  God's  name. 

But  what  do  we  see  today?  The  Jews  politically  emanci- 
pated are  scarcely  conscious  of  any  divine  purpose  in  their  sur- 
vival and  they  are  therefore  no  longer  content  to  suffer  hard- 
ship or  even  inconvenience  for  the  sake  of  their  religion.  Their 
religion  is  hard  to  keep  in  a  non- Jewish  environment  and  there- 
fore they  are  neglecting  their  religious  teachings  and  duties 
more  and  more.  Darwin's  law  of  adaptation  to  the  environ- 
ment is  at  work  among  them.  To  be  an  observant  religious 
Jew  in  the  midst  of  a  society  that  is  Christian  is  to  be  out  of 
keeping  with  that  society.  In  the  face  of  the  keen  competition 
in  the  business  world,  it  is  becoming  harder  and  harder  for  a 
Jew  to  observe  the  Sabbath.  Where  the  law  of  the  land  demands 
that  no  work  be  done  on  Sundays,  the  Jew  finds  it  almost  im- 
possibly hard  to  keep  his  business  closed  both  on  Saturday  and 

27 


on  Sunday,  and  the  difficulty  is  heightened  by  the  comparatively 
large  number  of  Jewish  festivals  and  holy  days  on  which  an 
observant  Jew  does  not  work.  Where  all  the  stores  selling  pro- 
visions, the  restaurants,  the  hotels,  the  dining  cars  on  trains, 
the  dining  rooms  on  board  ship  and  all  the  public  purveyors 
and  preparers  of  food  take  no  account  of  the  Jewish  dietary 
laws,  it  requires  constant  self-restraint  and  self-denial  to  keep 
these  Jewish  laws  of  diet. 

In  every  way  it  is  hard  to  live  a  religious  Jewish  life  in  a 
Christian  environment,  and  in  accordance  with  Darwin's  law 
of  the  survival  of  the  fittest,  Christianity  must  win  the  victory 
over  Judaism  in  a  country  where  Christianity  is  the  recognized 
religion.  Let  it  be  clearly  understood  that  when  scientists 
use  the  term  "the  survival  of  the  fittest"  they  do  not  necessarily 
mean  the  survival  of  the  best  or  the  most  admirable.  They 
mean  the  survival  of  the  "fittedest"  or  best  fitted  for  the  con- 
ditions. Thus,  in  an  environment  of  water,  fish  are  more  fitted 
to  survive  than  are  men,  though  men  are  unquestionably  more 
valuable  than  fish.  So  when  we  say  that  by  the  law  of  the  sur- 
vival of  the  fittest,  Christianity  in  Europe  and  America  will  win 
the  victory  over  Judaism,  we  do  not  thereby  grant  that  Chris- 
tianity is  a  purer  or  better  religious  system  than  is  Judaism, 
but  only  that  it  is  better  fitted  to  survive  in  a  Christian  country 
than  is  Judaism. 

Therefore,  since  in  Christian  lands  Judaism  is  difficult  and 
Christianity  is  easy,  the  Jewish  weaklings  are  solving  their 
religious  difficulties  in  the  same  way  as  we  have  seen  that  they 
are  solving  their  physical  and  their  cultural  difficulties — namely, 
by  turning  their  backs  on  their  Jewishness  and  throwing  in 
their  lot  with  the  Christian  majority  or  winning  side.  Some 
rapidly  pass  out  of  Judaism  into  Christian  influences  by  the 
treachery  of  intermarriage  or  baptism.  Others,  once  they  break 
their  three  main  mooring  ropes  of  observance  of  the  dietary 
laws,  observance  of  the  Jewish  festivals  and  Sabbath  observ- 
ance, slowly  drift  away  from  the  Synagogue  through  extreme 
liberalism  and  ethical  culture  to  be  swallowed  up  in  the  end  in 
the  grea,t  maelstrom  of  the  Church.  Religiously,  we  are  being 
overwhelmed  and  the  problem  of  the  survival  of  Judaism  is  a 
most  urgent  and  tragic  one. 

The  Zionist  tries  to  solve  this  problem  also.  First,  Zionism 
gives  to  the  Jew  self-respect  and  stiffens  his  Jewish  backbone 
so  that  he  scorns  to  sell  his  hallowed  religious  birthright  for  a 
mess  of  pottage.  He  refuses  to  give  up  his  religious  loyalties 
and  jealously  guards  his  Jewish  soul. 

In  the  second  place,  Zionism  makes  the  Jew  realize  what 
Judaism  is,  what  it  has  meant  in  the  past  to  the  Jews  and  to 
the  world  and  what  it  shall  mean  in  the  future.  The  Zionist 
insists  that  we  still  have  a  spiritual  message  to  give  to  the  world, 
and  therefore  he  despises  a  neglect  or  betrayal  of  Jewish  spirit- 
ual ideals. 

28 


Lastly,  the  Zionist  believes  in  the  creation  of  a  Jewish 
home-land  in  Palestine,  where  Judaism  will  not  be  out  of  keep- 
ing with  the  environment  and  difficult  of  observance,  but  where 
Judaism  will  be  the  very  atmosphere  of  life,  where  the  daily 
food  that  comes  to  market  will  be  Jewish,  where  the  public 
festivals  and  holy  days  of  the  calendar  will  be  Jewish  and  where 
the  day  of  rest  will  be  the  Jewish  Sabbath.  In  such  a  Jewish 
society,  Judaism  assuredly  will  not  die  out,  but  will  win  the 
victory  over  other  religions. 

To  sum  up:  The  Zionist  finds  the  solution  of  the  four- 
fold Jewish  problem  in  the  re-creation  of  a  Jewish  home-land 
in  Palestine. 

(i)  This  would  greatly  relieve  the  non- Jewish  world  of 
its  Jewish  problem. 

(ii)  This  would  give  to  the  Jew  who  felt  unequal  to  solv- 
ing the  physical  Jewish  problem  in  a  non-Jewish  land  the  oppor- 
tunity of  going  to  his  own  Jewish  land,  where  he  would  not 
have  to  fight  prejudice  and  hostility  throughout  life  because 
he  is  a  Jew,  but  where  he  would  be  a  Jew  at  all  times,  naturally 
and  normally. 

(iii)  This  would  give  to  the  Jew  who  was  not  content  to 
sell  his  mind  and  abilities  to  others,  the  opportunity  of  gaining 
Jewish  knowledge,  of  talking,  writing,  reading  and  thinking 
Jewishly,  and  of  devoting  himself  with  all  his  energies  and 
talent  to  the  cause  of  his  Jewish  people. 

(iv)  This  would  give  to  the  Jew  who  despaired  of  being 
able  to  live  a  truly  Jewish  life  in  non-Jewish  surroundings, 
the  opportunity  of  living  a  full,  frank  and  free  Jewish  life  in  a 
Jewish  land. 

This  re-creation  of  a  Jewish  national  home  center  not  only 
would  do  these  things,  it  has  already  commenced  to  do  these 
things,  even  though  the  center  consists  at  present  of  only  a 
handful  of  colonies  in  Palestine.  Yet  that  little  Zionist  center 
in  Palestine  has  put  new  life,  new  hope,  new  spirit  and  new 
belief  in  ourselves  into  us,  even  though  we  are  living  far  from 
it.  The  solution  of  the  Jewish  problem  that  Zionism  offers  is 
no  dream  or  empty  theory.  It  faces  the  facts  and  is  proving 
itself  to  be  the  long  looked  for  solution  of  the  Jewish  problem. 
Without  Zionism  the  days  of  the  Jewish  people  are  numbered. 
With  Zionism  we  shall  survive  through  all  generations  to  bear 
witness  as  an  eternal  people  to  the  purpose  and  love  of  the 
eternal  God. 


29 


THE  FORERUNNERS  OF  ZIONISM. 

by  LOTTA  LEVENSOHN 

Zionism  is  very  young,  as  time  is  reckoned  in  great  move- 
ments. Despite  its  youth,  Zionism  has  roots  deeply  imbedded 
in  the  historic  beginnings  of  Jewish  life  and  thought.  What  is 
now  known  as  the  Zionist  movement  came  into  being  in  1897, 
when  Theodore  Herzl  published  his  "Judenstaat"  (Jewish  State). 
Essentially,  however,  Zionism  is  an  outgrowth  of  the  Messianic 
ideal,  which  is  an  integral  part  of  the  national  consciousness 
of  the  Jewish  people. 

Through  long  centuries  of  persecution,  the  Jewish  people 
was  sustained  by  its  invincible  faith  in  a  God-sent  deliverer  to 
lead  the  return  to  Palestine.  The  hope  of  the  coming  of  the 
Messiah,  as  much  as  any  other  factor,  has  saved  the  Jewish 
people  alive  to  this  day. 

THE  PROPHETS. 

The  Messiah  and  the  Messianic  era  loom  large  in  the  books 
of  the  Prophets  of  Israel.  The  Prophets  foretold  an  heroic  de- 
liverer, the  model  of  the  righteous  king  and  judge,  to  spring 
from  the  line  of  David,  and  appear  at  the  end  of  days.  The 
Prophetic  descriptions  of  the  Messianic  era  are  instinct  with 
faith  in  the  potentialities  of  human  nature  when  it  reaches  out 
toward  God.  Then,  oppression  and  warfare  shall  no  more  be 
known,  and  all  the  peoples  will  come  to  worship  in  the  mount 
of  the  Lord.  Jewish  religious  thought  is  unique  in  its  insistence 
that  the  Golden  Age  of  humanity  does  not  lie  in  the  past,  but 
in  the  future.  For  the  full  divinity  of  mankind  is  still  to  be 
unfolded. 

The  whole  Jewish  people,  from  generation  to  generation,  is 
consecrated  to  ideal  aims  that  require  the  participation  of  every 
Jew — that  is  the  burden  of  the  teaching  of  the  Prophets  and 
the  sages  of  Israel.  The  Jewish  people  stands  for  ideals  of 
democracy,  of  just  dealing  between  man  and  man,  of  righteous- 
ness between  nation  and  nation.  The  Jewish  people  is  conceived 
as  the  servant  of  the  Lord,  which  must  order  its  whole  life  so 
that  the  will  of  God  may  become  manifest  to  all  men.  Every 
relation  and  every  aspect  of  the  life  of  this  consecrated  people 
must  be  regulated  by  the  standards  of  absolute  righteousness 
and  justice.  Jewish  national  life  was  planned  to  furnish  a  model 
to  all  other  peoples. 

Zionism  strives  for  the  restoration  of  the  Jewish  people  to 
its  ancestral  land  because  Jewish  ideals,  in  their  very  nature, 

30 


presuppose  a  free,  happy  people  at  home  in  its  own  land.  With- 
out a  free  national  life,  Jewish  ideals  and  idealism  can  be  real- 
ized only  to  a  very  small  degree.  Escape  from  persecution, 
though  it  may  stimulate  Jews  to  become  Zionists,  is  only  one 
motive  for  Zionist  striving. 

The  attempts  to  regain  Palestine  after  the  downfall  of  the 
Jewish  political  state  in  the  year  70  of  the  Common  Era,  and 
the  pathetic  acceptance  of  the  false  Messiahs,  cannot  be  sketched 
here  even  in  outline.  This  fascinating  and  enheartening  aspect 
of  Jewish  history  is  worthy  of  careful  study. 

The  present  outline  of  the  beginnings  of  modern  Zionism  will 
be  confined  to  the  preachers  and  workers  in  the  cause  of  Zion 
before  Herzl  appeared,  and  before  the  word  "Zionism"  itself 
was  coined.  Hess,  Kalischer,  Pinsker  and  Smolenskin  differed 
from  each  other  in  education,  position  and  views  of  life  so  much 
that  one  would  not  be  apt  to  look  for  anything  in  common 
among  them.  Yet,  all  brought  their  minds  to  bear  on  the  situa- 
tion of  the  Jewish  people  and  the  dangers  to  Judaism;  and  all 
arrived,  by  different  routes,  at  an  identical  conclusion.  These 
men  based  themselves  on  a  common  premise :  that  the  Jews  are 
one  people,  though  they  are  scattered  among  all  the  nations  and 
over  all  the  countries  of  the  world.  The  solution  proposed  by 
Hess,  Kalischer,  Smolenskin  and  Pinsker  alike,  was  that  a  self- 
respecting  people  must  resume  its  historic  role  in  the  land  of 
its  birth — the  Jewish  people  must  unite  in  the  cause  of  its  own 
restoration  to  its  proper  place  among  the  nations  of  the  world. 

MOSES  HESS. 

Moses  Hess,  the  "communist  German  rabbi,"  and  a  leading 
Socialist  thinker,  discussed  the  national  Jewish  problem  in  his 
"Rom  und  Jerusalem."  The  Jews,  thought  Hess,  would  always 
be  despised  and  oppressed  if  they  were  content  with  living  in 
countries  that  barely  tolerated  them.  He  had  a  vision  of  man- 
kind living  as  a  great  brotherhood  of  nations  in  times  to  come. 
The  place  of  the  Jews  was  that  of  a  nation  among  the  rest, 
equal  with  the  rest.  Hess  was  an  eager  protagonist  for  the 
legal  and  political  rights  of  the  Jews,  but  he  placed  the  restora- 
tion of  the  Jewish  nationality  over  and  above  all.  If  the  Jews 
were  to  have  a  choice  forced  upon  them,  Hess  would  have  had 
them  forego  emancipation  and  devote  themselves  to  their  na- 
tional redemption. 

HIRSCH  KALISCHER. 

Contemporary  with  Moses  Hess,  but  of  a  widely  different 
type,  was  Hirsch  Kalischer  of  Thorn,  Prussia,  an  Orthodox  rabbi. 
Kalischer  approached  the  Jewish  problem  from  the  purely  re- 
ligious point  of  view.  Yishub  Erez  Israel  (settlement  in  Pales- 
tine) is  a  religious  obligation.  Kalischer's  viewpoint  differed 

0 

31 


from  that  of  other  Orthodox  leaders  in  that  he  did  not  approve 
of  waiting  for  the  Messiah  to  lead  the  Jewish  people  to  Pales- 
tine. He  believed  devoutly  in  the  coming  of  the  Messiah,  just 
as  they  did ;  but  he  taught  that  the  Messianic  time  would  follow, 
and  not  precede,  the  colonization  of  Palestine  and  the  develop- 
ment of  national  life  there.  The  pamphlet  "Drishath  Zion" 
summarized  the  ideas  of  Kalischer,  and  he  was  personally  an 
active  propagandist  for  some  of  the  earliest  colonization  work. 

PEREZ  SMOLENSKIN. 

Perez  Smolenskin  was  a  Russian  Jew,  a  Maskil, — an  ad- 
herent of  the  important  movement  for  spreading  European  cul- 
ture through  the  medium  of  the  Hebrew  language.  This  move- 
ment was  known  in  Russia  as  the  "Haskalah,"  meaning  "Enlight- 
enment." In  the  eighteenth  century,  Moses  Mendelssohn  had 
called  to  the  Jews  of  Germany  to  come  out  of  their  medieval 
obliviousness  to  the  intellectual  life  all  around  them.  Later  on, 
the  enthusiasm  for  "enlightenment"  swept  over  Russian  Jewry, 
and  fired  young  Jews  who  hungered  and  thirsted  to  taste  of 
European  culture.  Perez  Smolenskin  found  that  in  their  zeal 
many  young  men  were  losing  their  contact  with  Jewish  life. 
They  threw  the  Hebrew  language  overboard  once  it  had  served 
to  introduce  them  to  the  new  culture,  and  all  but  repudiated 
Jewish  belief  and  traditional  practices.  This  was  the  situation 
in  the  60's  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

Smolenskin's  great  service  was  that  he  diverted  the  course 
of  the  Haskalah  safely  into  the  channel  of  Jewish  nationalism. 
In  Smolenskin  there  was  incarnate  something  of  the  old  exalta- 
tion of  the  Prophets,  of  their  spiritual-national  conception,  of 
their  belief  in  the  eternity  of  the  Jewish  people  for  the  sake  of 
its  eternal  ideals.  He  laid  bare  the  heart  of  Jewish  idealism. 
He  demanded  that  Hebrew  be  restored  to  its  high  office  as  the 
voice  of  the  "Am  Olam"  (The  Eternal  People),  as  he  called  his 
chief  work.  Love  of  Zion  was  the  central  idea  in  Smolenskin's 
nationalism.  He  published  a  little  magazine  in  Vienna  at  almost 
inconceivable  sacrifices,  calling  it  "Ha-Schachar,"  (The  Dawn), 
and  spread  his  propaganda  through  it.  He  and  his  group  of  dis- 
ciples ardently  devoted  themselves  to  their  labor  of  love.  Smo- 
lenskin was  a  literary  artist,  and  did  much  to  develop  the  Hebrew 
language  for  modern  usage. 

LEO  PINSKER. 

Leo  Pinsker,  the  immediate  forerunner  of  Herzl,  was  closely 
akin  to  him  in  his  idea  of  the  solution  of  the  Jewish  national 
problem.  He,  too,  advocated  national  organization  and  political 
means.  Pinsker  was  a  Russian  physician,  who  was  stirred  to 
thought  by  the  pogroms  and  restrictive  legislation  against  the 
Jews  in  the  early  80's  of  the  nineteenth  century.  He  concluded 

32 


that  the  freedom  of  the  Jewish  people  must  be  achieved  by  the 
people  itself.  He  summed  up  his  thought  in  a  word — "Auto- 
Emancipation" — the  title  of  his  essay  calling  upon  the  Jews  to 
stand  up  to  their  task.  Pinsker's  criticism  of  the  Jews  was  that 
they  never  asserted  themselves  as  a  people ;  governments  were 
used  to  dealing  only  with  Jews,  never  with  the  Jewish  people. 
Their  intolerable  situation  was  due  mostly  to  the  hatred  that 
was  the  portion  of  the  alien  stranger.  Even  if  the  European  gov- 
ernments granted  legal  and  political  emancipation  to  the  Jews, 
they  would  benefit  as  individuals  only,  and  would  not  achieve 
full  scope  for  their  abilities  at  that.  The  Jewish  people  would 
still  have  no  national  status.  The  nation  must  therefore  eman- 
cipate itself  as  a  whole. 

At  first  Pinsker  thought  that  any  suitable  territory  would 
do  for  a  Jewish  home-land.  Like  Herzl,  when  his  interest  in  the 
Jewish  question  was  first  stirred,  he  knew  little  of  the  sentiment 
and  spiritual  aspirations  of  the  Jewish  people.  Both  he  and 
Herzl,  when  they  came  into  intimate  contact  with  the  people, 
learned  that  only  Palestine  could  serve  as  the  national  home. 

Pinsker  proposed  that  whatever  land  was  selected  be  ac- 
quired by  purchase,  and  the  title  thereto  guaranteed  by  the 
Great  Powers  of  Europe.  This  is  a  direct  foreshadowing  of  the 
Basel  Program,  the  basis  of  modern  Zionism.  The  methods  sug- 
gested by  Pinsker  for  cultivating  and  allotting  the  land  have 
since  been  employed  by  the  Zionist  movement  through  the  Jewish 
National  Fund,  the  Jewish  Colonial  Trust  and  the  Achooza. 

"Auto-Emancipation"  contained  a  call  for  a  Jewish  Con- 
gress, which  was  but  partially  realized  in  Pinsker's  own  lifetime. 
It  resulted  in  a  convention  of  the  Chovevi  Zion  (Palestine  col- 
onization) societies,  at  Kattowitz  in  1884,  when  a  federation  was 
formed  with  Pinsker  as  the  president.  The  truly  representative 
national  assembly  that  Pinsker  had  in  mind  was  realized  only 
thirteen  years  later  in  the  Zionist  Congress  called  by  Herzl. 

PALESTINIAN  COLONISTS. 

Hess  and  Kalischer,  Smolenskin  and  Pinsker  served  the  Jew- 
ish people  with  all  their  heart  and  soul.  They  fanned  the  flame 
of  Jewish  aspiration  into  new  life.  When  we  pay  them  our 
tribute  of  gratitude,  we  may  not  omit  to  mention  the  heroic 
vanguard  that  returned  to  the  Land  of  the  Fathers  to  give  living 
form  and  substance  to  the  words  of  the  preachers  of  national 
restoration. 

The  pioneers  of  Palestinian  colonization  were  East  European 
Jews,  city-dwellers  with  little  money  and  less  knowledge  of 
farming.  Though  the  Chovevi  Zion  organization  and  Baron  Ed- 
mond  de  Rothschild  came  to  their  help,  the  achievements  of  the 
last  forty  years  must  be  mainly  credited  to  the  superhuman 

33 


perseverance  of  the  colonists.  The  forty  and  more  colonies  ("vil- 
lages," they  are  called  in  Palestine)  are  the  fruit  of  the  idealism 
of  these  settlers,  and  the  nucleus  of  the  national  center  that  is 
to  be.  The  Land  itself  has  been  an  inspiration,  the  colonists  say. 
The  tale  of  their  sufferings,  of  their  courage  and  of  their  stead- 
fastness, will  form  one  of  the  brightest  chapters  in  the  history 
of  the  Jewish  Renaissance. 

ZIONISM. 

The  providence  of  history  brought  Theodore  Herzl  to  the 
fore  after  a  generation  of  active  thought  and  labor  had  paved 
the  way  for  him.  He  insisted  that  the  problem  of  the  Jewish 
people  must  no  longer  be  confined  to  inner  Jewish  councils,  but 
that  it  must  be  placed  on  the  calendar  of  world  politics  for 
statesmen  to  grapple  with.  This  is  the  genesis  of  political  Zion- 
ism, or  the  modern  Zionist  movement. 

The  Zionists  do  not  aim  at  the  establishment  of  an  inde- 
pendent Jewish  state.  Zionism  does  not  go  beyond  the  political 
requirements  of  the  Prophets :  the  right  to  self-government  in  all 
inner  and  local  matters — that  is,  national  autonomy.  Full  and 
unqualified  allegiance  to  the  Ottoman  Government  has  been  a 
matter  of  course  in  the  Zionist  program. 

In  this  autonomous  national  center  Zionism  will  strive  to 
realize  the  Prophets'  vision  of  Israel  as  a  "Light  unto  the  na- 
tions," reflecting  to  all  mankind  the  glory  of  the  Presence  of 
God. 


34 


THEODOR  HERZL 

A   Brief  Sketch   of  His  Life 
BY  ISRAEL,  GOLDBERG 


INTRODUCTION. 

By  what  miracle  did  an  exiled  people,  after  centuries  of 
oppression  and  humiliation,  call  to  life  from  its  midst  the  power- 
ful personality,  the  resplendent  hero  that  was  Theodor  Herzl  ?  Inex- 
haustible must  be  the  life-force  of  this  people ;  undimmed  should  be 
its  hope  even  in  its  darkest  moments. 

In  the  towns  of  Eastern  Europe  the  great  masses  of  the 
Jewish  people  were  living  in  physical  and  moral  subjection.  The 
old  continued  to  cherish  their  mystic  dream  of  a  supernatural 
deliverance.  The  young,  hemmed  in  and  hampered  in  every  en- 
deavor, yielded  to  despair  or  broke  their  feeble  strength  against 
the  barrier  in  causes  that  were  not  theirs. 

Here  and  there  a  few  passionate  voices  like  those  of  Pinsker 
and  Smolenskin  had  called  on  the  people  for  self-activity  and 
self-help,  but  they  failed  to  find  an  echo  in  the  hearts  of  the 
great  masses.  The  solution  of  their  problem  through  national 
organization  and  political  action  could  scarcely  even  suggest 
itself  to  the  Jews  of  Eastern  Europe,  whose  nationality  was 
the  object  of  persecution  and  who  were  deprived  of  political 
rights. 

In  the  lands  of  Western  Europe,  the  Ghettos  had  been 
thrown  open,  and  the  legal  restrictions  against  the  Jews  re- 
moved. The  young  generation  of  Jews  looked  upon  itself  as 
completely  emancipated.  But  this  "emancipation"  brought  in 
its  train  two  great  evils.  In  the  first  place,  the  young  Jews,  in 
their  eagerness  to  avail  themselves  of  the  new  opportunities  for 
personal  advancement,  in  their  uncritical  admiration  for  the  cul- 
ture of  their  neighbors,  and,  above  all,  in  their  desire  to  appear 
sufficiently  grateful  for  the  favors  they  enjoyed,  sought  to  iden- 
tify themselves  with  their  Gentile  fellow-countrymen  by  throw- 
ing off  as  much  of  their  Jewish  distinctiveness  as  they  possibly 
could.  They  surrendered  the  age-long  hope  of  the  national  res- 
toration of  Israel  in  return  for  what  was  after  all  only  their 
right  as  human  beings.  They  were  willing  to  sell  their  birth- 
right, as  did  Esau  of  old,  for  a  pot  of  lentils.  In  the  second 
place,  the  success  which  the  Jews  achieved  in  competition  with 
their  Gentile  fellow-citizens — who  continued  to  look  upon  them 
as  an  alien  element — stirred  up  envy  and  hatred,  and  gave  rise 
to  the  modern  anti-Semitic  movement.  Like  a  withering  gale 

35 


anti-Semitism  rose  up  in  the  cities  of  Germany  and  swept  across 
the  whole  of  Europe,  poisoning  the  life  of  the  Jew,  sparing  not 
even  the  stronghold  of  tolerance  and  liberalism,  democratic 
France.  "Emancipation,"  certainly,  had  not  solved  the  Jewish 
problem. 

HERZL'S  BOYHOOD  AND  YOUTH. 

Herzl  was  born  May  21,  1860,  in  Budapest,  the  capital  of 
Hungary.  He  received  but  a  very  meager  Jewish  education,  but 
his  Jewish  pride  asserted  itself  in  his  earliest  years.  One  of 
his  teachers  at  the  technical  high  school  one  day  defined  the 
term  "heathens"  as  including  "idol  worshippers,  Mohammedans 
and  Jews."  Theodor  after  this  had  no  more  use  for  that  school, 
and  enrolled,  instead,  in  the  Classical  Gymnasium.  His  powerful 
and  sweeping  imagination,  which  later  conceived  in  total  inde- 
pendence his  all-embracing  solution  of  the  Jewish  problem,  re- 
vealed itself  in  his  earliest  boyhood.  At  the  age  of  ten,  he  drew 
up  a  plan  for  cutting  through  the  Isthmus  of  Panama. 

When  he  was  eighteen  years  old,  his  family  removed  to 
Vienna.  Here  he  took  up  the  study  of  law.  In  the  university 
he  belonged  to  a  student  fraternity  which  decided  one  day  to 
admit  no  more  Jews  to  membership  while  "graciously"  allowing 
those  Jews  already  members  to  stay.  Herzl  immediately  sent  in 
his  resignation  to  those  "elegant  young  men." 

After  securing  his  juridical  degree  in  1884,  he  retired  to  the 
Tyrolean  city  of  Salzburg,  attracted  by  its  beautiful  scenery, 
there  to  practice  his  profession.  But  he  gave  himself  up  almost 
entirely  to  literature.  His  enormous  capacity  for  work,  a  quality 
which  has  characterized  nearly  all  great  men,  revealed  itself  at 
this  time  and  resulted  in  the  production  of  a  large  number  of 
plays,  essays,  sketches,  critical  studies,  etc.  Many  of  his  plays 
were  successfully  produced.  He  became  famous  as  a  journalist 
and  writer  of  feuilletons  or  short  sketches. 

In  1891  he  went  to  Paris  as  correspondent  of  the  Vienna 
newspaper  "Die  Neue  Freie  Presse,"  an  event  which  brought  a 
new  turn  to  his  thought  and  action. 

"A  JEWISH  STATE." 

On  several  occasions,  as  indicated  above,  Herzl  had  already 
felt  the  sting  and  menace  of  anti-Semitism.  He  had  even  con- 
cluded to  abandon  Salzburg,  because,  being  a  Jew,  he  saw  no 
prospects  there  for  a  successful  career.  But  his  literary  suc- 
cesses and  diverting  travels  had  made  him  lose  touch  with  the 
miseries  and  problems  of  the  Jews.  In  Paris,  however,  the 
Dreyfus  affair  was  at  that  time  absorbing  attention,  and  there 
he  witnessed  such  a  violent  and  unreasoning  exhibition  of  hatred 
and  spite  against  the  Jews  that  he  was  forced  to  look  into  his 
own  soul  and  define  his  attitude  to  his  own  people.  He  saw  the 

36 


vast  majority  of  the  French  nation  in  Europe  eager  "to  convict 
one  Jew,  and,  in  him,  all  Jews."  He  underwent  a  painful  and 
tremendous  inner  struggle  from  which  he  emerged  with  a  clear 
conception  of  the  Jewish  problem  and  with  a  simple  but  funda- 
mental plan  for  its  solution.  Herzl  came  back  to  his  own  peo- 
ple, not  alone  to  suffer  with  them,  but  to  lead  them  to  a  new 
and  dignified  life. 

In  words  of  the  loftiest  spiritual  exaltation  he  embodied  his 
ideas  in  a  pamphlet,  which  he  called  "The  Jewish  State."  Dur- 
ing the  last  two  months  of  his  stay  in  Paris  he  worked  on  this 
pamphlet  every  day,  until  he  was  exhausted.  While  writing,  as 
he  tells  us  in  his  little  "Autobiography,"  he  seemed  to  hear  the 
rushing  of  eagles  above  his  head. 

In  this  pamphlet  Herzl  emphasized  the  following  two  propo- 
sitions : 

First:  The  Jews  are  a  distinct  nation  whose  problem  can 
be  solved  only  by  restoring  them  to  a  normal  national  life  in  a 
land  of  their  own.  He  mentions  Palestine  and  Argentina  as 
possible  Jewish  lands. 

Second:  The  Jewish  problem  can  be  solved  only  through 
the  self-activity  of  the  Jewish  people — that  is  to  say,  the  Jewish 
problem  can  be  solved  only  by  the  Jews  themselves. 

With  the  precision  of  an  architect  and  the  inspired  vision 
of  a  prophet,  Herzl  proceeds  to  outline  in  detail  the  process  of 
creation  of  the  Jewish  State.  The  "Society  of  Jews"  is  to  be 
the  recognized  political  agency  for  the  Jewish  people,  the  "Jew- 
ish Company"  its  financial  and  executive  arm.  The  territorial 
rights  are  to  be  secured  by  a  charter  with  the  sanction  and 
good-will  of  all  the  European  governments.  Colonization  is  to 
proceed  by  organized  groups.  The  seven-hour  working  day  is 
to  be  instituted.  The  Jewish  masses,  and  even  some  from  the 
upper  classes,  will  flock  to  the  new  land  to  gain  economic  and 
spiritual  freedom.  "A  generation  of  wonderful  Jews  will  spring 
from  the  earth.  The  Macabbees  will  rise  again.  Let  the  open- 
ing words  once  more  be  repeated:  the  Jews  who  will  it  shall 
have  a  State  of  their  own!" 

HERZL  HAILED  AS  LEADER. 

It  was  neither  the  intention  nor  the  desire  of  Herzl  to  take 
the  lead  in  a  movement  for  the  creation  of  a  Jewish  State.  Even 
before  publishing  his  pamphlet  he  had  conferred  and  correspond- 
ed with  the  great  Jewish  philanthropist,  Baron  Maurice  de 
Hirsch,  who,  he  hoped,  would  start  the  movement.  But  the 
timidity  and  lack  of  imagination  which  has  characterized  so 
much  of  Jewish  philanthropy  made  even  the  great  Hirsch  unre- 
sponsive to  Herzl's  plea. 

In  fact,  of  the  notable  Jewish  personalities  of  that  day,  only 
one,  the  famous  writer,  Max  Nordau,  came  at  once  to  his  sup- 


port.    The  others  remained  either  hostile  or  indifferent. 

But  as  for  the  great  masses  of  the  Jewish  people,  Herzl  in 
his  Judenstaat  had  spoken  the  word  for  which  they  were  wait- 
ing. The  first  public  expression  of  adherence  came  from  Jewish 
students  in  Austria  and  Germany,  from  whom  he  received  an 
address  covered  with  thousands  of  signatures.  From  Russia, 
Galicia,  Rumania,  Bulgaria  and  Hungary  he  received  enthusiastic 
expressions  of  adherence  and  pleas  for  action.  Herzl  was  thus 
forced  by  circumstances  to  take  the  lead.  At  the  same  time  he 
reached  the  conclusion  that  the  only  land  which  could  fire  the 
imagination  and  energize  the  will  of  the  Jewish  people  was 
Palestine.  From  this  belief  he  never  swerved. 

Inspired  with  his  great  mission,  Herzl  now  began  his  career 
of  wonderful  activity  which  could  be  adequately  recounted  only 
in  an  epic  poem.  In  order  to  acquaint  himself  with  the  political 
and  diplomatic  ground  he  made  a  special  journey  to  Constanti- 
nople (April,  1896).  He  returned  buoyantly  optimistic,  and  on 
his  way  through  Sofia  received  a  stirring  ovation  from  the  Bul- 
garian Jews.  In  England,  although  he  found  opposition  or  in- 
difference among  the  rich  and  distinguished  Jews,  he  was  hailed 
as  leader  by  the  Zionists  of  the  East  End  of  London. 

THE  FIRST  ZIONIST  CONGRESS. 

He  came  to  the  conclusion  that  it  was  most  important  to 
win  the  Jewish  masses,  and  in  order  to  give  them  the  oppor- 
tunity to  declare  themselves,  as  well  as  to  provide  a  general 
forum  for  the  discussion  of  the  Jewish  problem,  he  conceived  the 
idea  of  convening  a  Jewish  Congress. 

In  the  name  of  a  commission  organized  for  the  purpose,  he 
issued  a  call  for  such  a  Congress,  which  was  to  convene  in 
Munich  in  August,  1897.  "The  direction  of  Jewish  affairs,"  said 
he  in  this  call,  "must  not  be  left  to  the  will  of  individuals — no 
matter  how  well-intentioned  they  may  be.  A  forum  must  be 
created,  before  which  each  one  may  be  made  to  account  for 
what  he  does  or  fails  to  do  in  Jewry." 

A  storm  of  opposition  arose  from  most  of  the  prominent 
Jews  of  Western  Europe,  who  were  unaccustomed  and  afraid 
to  discuss  Jewish  affairs  openly  and  before  a  democratic  Jewish 
body.  The  representatives  of  the  Munich  Jewish  community  ob- 
jected to  the  holding  of  the  Congress  in  their  city.  As  a  result 
the  Swiss  city  of  Basel  was  chosen.  Finally  a  number  of  German 
rabbis,  fearful  lest  their  German  patriotism  be  questioned,  issued 
a  formal  protest  against  the  holding  of  the  Congress.  But  the 
enthusiasm  and  support  which  Herzl  found  among  the  Jews  of 
Eastern  Europe  more  than  made  up  for  the  opposition  of  the 
"emancipated." 

In  the  meantime,  in  order  to  have  a  weapon  of  defence 
against  his  numerous  opponents  and  a  means  of  advancing  the 

38 


Jewish  cause,  Herzl  had  with  his  own  funds  founded  the  weekly 
newspaper,  "Die  Welt,"  which  to  this  day  remains  the  central 
official  organ  of  the  Zionist  movement. 

The  first  representative  Jewish  assembly  since  the  Disper- 
sion, the  first  Zionist  Congress,  brought  together  197  delegates 
from  almost  every  land  of  the  earth.  It  was  perhaos  the  most 
significant  event  in  all  the  post-Biblical  history  of  the  Jewish 
people.  The  movement  for  the  redemption  of  the  Jews  through 
the  national  organization  and  self-activity  of  the  Jewish  people 
was  inaugurated,  and  its  program  defined  to  be  the  "creation  of 
a  publicly-assured,  legally-secured  home  for  the  Jewish  people 
in  Palestine."  Over  the  entire  event  hovered  the  magnetic  per- 
sonality and  creative  spirit  of  Theodor  Herzl. 

STATESMAN  AND  DIPLOMAT. 

As  leader  of  an  organized  movement,  Herzl  now  took  up 
with  feverish  energy  the  numerous  tasks  which  crowded  in  upon 
him,  chief  of  which  at  this  moment  was  the  creation  of  the  finan- 
cial instrument  of  the  movement,  the  Colonial  Bank.  Here  again 
it  was  the  masses  of  the  Jewish  people  who  subscribed  the 
greater  portion  of  the  Bank's  capital. 

The  second  Congress,  held  in  1898,  was  another  triumph 
for  the  ideas  and  personality  of  Herzl.  The  enthusiasm  with 
which  he  was  greeted  was  indescribable.  The  principles  he  advo- 
cated for  the  control  of  Palestinian  colonization  were  practically 
adopted.  A  commission  was  elected  to  institute  the  Colonial 
Bank.  During  the  year  the  movement  had  grown  enormously. 

To  secure  the  consent  of  the  governments,  Herzl  sought  to 
win  the  good  will  of  the  European  monarchs.  He  was  received 
in  audience  by  some  of  the  most  powerful  rulers  or  their  chief 
ministers.  Upon  all  of  them  his  wonderful  personality  made  a 
profound  impression.  He  appeared  before  them  not  as  a  sup- 
pliant for  favors,  but  as  the  emissary  of  a  people,  the  guardian 
of  their  political  interests  and  their  dignity,  in  presence  and 
bearing  a  king  among  kings. 

In  the  fall  of  1898  Herzl,  at  the  head  of  a  Jewish  deputation, 
was  received  by  the  German  Emperor,  William  II,  in  the  city 
of  Jerusalem  and  won  the  sympathy  of  that  monarch  for  his 
cause.  In  May,  1901,  he  had  his  first  audience  with  the  Sultan 
of  Turkey.  In  the  summer  of  1903,  upon  the  invitation  of  the 
Russian  minister,  Von  Plehve,  he  visited  the  Russian  capital  and 
had  interviews  with  the  principal  Russian  ministers.  Later  he 
was  also  received  by  the  King  of  Italy,  Victor  Emanuel  II,  and 
by  the  Pope.  For  the  first  time  since  the  destruction  of  the 
second  temple,  the  Jewish  people,  through  Herzl,  was  becoming 
a  factor  in  the  politics  of  the  world. 

In  the  meantime,  as  the  movement  continued  to  grow,  its 
needs  and  problems  multiplied.  The  Colonial  Bank,  after  numer- 

39 


cms  difficulties  had  been  overcome,  was  at  length  founded.  At 
the  third  Congress  Herzl  reported:  "It  was  a  good  year;  we 
have  moved  a  step  forward."  But  the  strain  and  struggle  was 
intense  and  was  beginning  to  affect  the  heart  of  the  great 
champion. 

It  seemed  doubtful  if  Herzl  would  find  the  strength  to  attend 
the  Fourth  Zionist  Congress  in  London.  But  the  mighty  will 
compelled  the  weak  heart.  He  left  his  sick  bed  and  in  the  midst 
of  a  group  of  the  foremost  men  in  Jewry,  Nordau,  Mandel- 
stamm,  Caster,  Zangwill,  his  majestic  personality  stood  forth 
and  thrilled  the  vast  throng  that  gathered  in  the  great  assembly 
hall,  as  well  as  the  delegates  at  the  sessions  of  the  Congress. 
The  English  press  and  the  English  statesmen  hailed  the  move- 
ment and  promised  their  support. 

If  only  the  rich  and  powerful  among  the  Jews  had  come  to 
support  him !  Then  his  audiences  with  the  Turkish  ruler,  upon 
whom  he  produced  so  deep  and  favorable  an  impression,  would 
have  resulted  in  the  obtaining  of  that  Charter  for  the  Jewish 
occupation  of  Palestine  which  Herzl  sought.  But  the  rich  and 
satisfied  Jews  held  aloof,  and  Herzl,  although  he  suffered  keen 
disappointment,  resolved  to  put  his  trust  in  the  poor.  At  the 
Fifth  Congress,  held  at  Basel  (1901),  the  Jewish  National  Fund 
was  created,  the  fund  through  which  the  vast  masses  of  the 
people,  by  uniting  their  strength,  might  gather  the  means  which 
the  shortsighted  and  timid  rich  withheld. 

"ALTNEULAND" :  A  VISION  OF  RESTORED  ISRAEL. 

In  the  midst  of  his  numerous  and  immense  labors,  which,  as 
he  declares,  used  to  exhaust  him  completely,  Herzl,  the  prophet 
in  action,  found  time  to  dream  his  golden  dream  of  the  future. 
In  the  form  of  a  novel,  which  he  called  "Altneuland,"  "The  Old 
Newland,"  he  allowed  his  rich  poetic  fancy  to  anticipate  the  aims 
for  which  he  was  striving.  He  projected  his  prophetic  vision 
twenty  years  ahead  and  saw  Palestine  and  the  lewish  people 
redeemed  in  each  other.  He  saw  the  land  covered  with  cities, 
farmsteads  and  varied  institutions  in  which  science,  experience 
and  ingenuity  combined  to  free  men  from  economic  stress.  He 
saw  proud  men  and  women  eager  to  serve  the  cause  of  their 
people  and  of  humanity — a  new  human  society  dedicated  to  the 
principle  of  universal  well-being,  social  justice,  and  peace.  "The 
dream  is  not  so  much  different  from  the  deed  as  some  think," 
Herzl  had  said.  Thus  he,  the  man  of  iron  will  and  ready  action, 
lighted  a  beacon-fire  as  a  guide  for  himself  and  his  followers. 
This  beacon-fire,  which  still  blazes  in  the  night,  is  "Altneuland." 

UGANDA:  "A  SHELTER  FOR  THE  NIGHT." 

In  the  meantime,  the  actual  state  of  affairs  was  becoming 
more  complex,  the  movement  attracted  new  interests  and 
aroused  deeper  passions. 

40 


On  July  16,  1902,  Herzl  testified  as  an  expert  on  Jewish 
affairs  before  the  Alien  Commission  which  was  investigating 
immigration  into  England.  His  personality  and  his  testimony 
produced  a  profound  effect,  and  from  that  moment  the  British 
Government  began  to  interest  itself  in  his  plans  with  far-reaching 
consequences. 

Early  in  August,  by  invitation  of  the  Russian  minister,  Von 
Plehve,  he  journeys  to  Petrograd  in  order  to  try  to  convince  the 
Russian  Government  that  Zionism  does  not  conflict  with  Rus- 
sian interests.  He  succeeds  in  obtaining  from  the  Russian  min- 
isters important  promises  in  the  interests  of  Zionism.  The  most 
formidable  obstacles  seem  to  melt  away  from  his  triumphal  path. 
During  his  stay  in  Russia  he  is  the  witness  of  the  misery  and 
oppression  of  the  Jewish  population. 

On  his  return,  the  streets  of  Vilna  are  dense  with  the  throngs 
who  come  out  to  greet  him.  In  the  crowded  synagogue,  when 
the  old  rabbi  in  his  tremulous  voice  gives  him  the  blessing,  the 
people  burst  into  loud  weeping.  It  is  the  prayer  of  gratitude 
and  love  addressed  by  a  helpless  people  to  its  champion.  His 
great  heart  is  wrung  with  pity.  But  the  speedy  redemption  of 
his  people  seems  to  be  in  sight. 

In  order,  however,  to  obtain  from  the  Sultan  the  charter 
for  the  colonization  of  Palestine,  very  large  sums  were  required, 
sums  much  larger  than  could  be  obtained  soon  enough  from 
the  impoverished  masses  of  the  Jewish  people.  The  Kishineff 
massacre  had  occurred,  and,  while  it  horrified  the  civilized  world, 
the  threat  and  danger  of  further  massacres,  like  a  dreadful 
shadow,  hovered  over  the  life  of  the  Jews  of  Russia.  Immediate 
relief  was  imperative. 

And  now,  as  if  in  answer  to  this  need,  came  the  British 
Government  and  offered  territory  in  one  of  its  East  African 
colonies,  known  as  Uganda,  for  the  colonization  of  the  Jews. 
Even  before  this,  El-Arish,  south  of  Palestine,  had  been  offered 
by  Great  Britain,  but  for  important  reasons  could  not  be  ac- 
cepted. Herzl  laid  the  Uganda  offer  before  the  Sixth  Zionist 
Congress  held  in  Basel  on  August  23,  1903.  But  even  in  his  open- 
ing speech  Herzl  declared  the  ultimate  aim  of  the  Jewish  people 
to  be  no  land  other  than  Palestine.  And  his  closing  speech  he 
ended  with  the  words :  "If  I  forget  thee,  O  Jerusalem,  let  my 
right  hand  forget  its  cunning."  Uganda  he  looked  upon  merely 
as  a  "shelter  for  the  night,"  and  as  a  political  weapon  in  the 
struggle  for  Zion. 

Nevertheless  there  were  many  men  who  declared  that  by 
his  willingness  to  accept  Uganda,  Herzl  had  surrendered  Pales- 
tine. No  amount  of  assurance  could  convince  them  or  pacify 
them.  They  attacked  Herzl  bitterly.  Feeling  ran  high.  A  num- 
ber of  the  foremost  Russian  Jews  met  in  the  famous  Conference 
at  Charkow  and  chose  a  deputation  to  lay  certain  ultimatums 
before  Herzl. 

41 


Throughout  this  conflict  Herzl  suffered  acutely.  The  at- 
tacks of  heart  failure  increased,  but  in  spite  of  the  entreaties  of 
his  friends  he  refused  to  spare  himself. 

The  Charkow  deputation  came,  but,  having  come  as  accusers, 
they  went  away  as  the  accused.  With  infinite  patience,  Herzl 
answered  his  opponents  and  reiterated  his  assurances.  At  the 
sessions  of  the  Greater  Actions  Committee  of  April  11-15,  1904, 
peace  was  finally  re-established  and  a  vote  of  confidence  was 
given  to  the  leader. 

HERZL'S  DEATH. 

"The  fight  was  over,  and  the  organization  again  united. 
The  participants  at  the  Conference  rode  home  with  satisfied  con- 
science to  take  up  the  work  anew.  For  the  founder  and  unifier 
of  the  movement,  however,  begins  the  last  hard  fight  in  which, 
finally,  he  was  to  yield  for  the  first  time  to  a  stronger."* 

The  weak  heart  was  unable  to  keep  pace  with  the  mighty 
spirit.  In  the  little  mountain  town  of  Edlach,  whither  he  had 
gone  for  rest  and  cure,  Herzl,  early  in  July,  1904,  was  at  last 
forced  to  bed.  He  knew  that  the  end  was  near.  "Greet  Pales- 
tine for  me"  are  his  words  to  a  friend.  "I  have  given  my  life- 
blood  to  my  people !"  In  spite  of  pain  and  difficulty  of  breathing 
he  remained  uncomplaining,  cheerful  and  self-possessed.  Finally 
on  the  afternoon  of  July  3d,  1904,  after  having  kept  Death  at 
bay  by  sheer  power  of  will  until  he  could  again  see  his  mother 
and  children,  Herzl,  aged  only  forty-four  years,  breathed  his  last. 
The  Jewish  people  had  lost  the  strongest,  the  most  glorious 
personality  it  has  produced  in  modern  times. 

Said  Theodor  Herzl  once  to  an  audience  in  Berlin  (Feb.  8, 
1898)  :  "I  believe  I  may  say  to  you  that  we  have  given  some- 
thing to  the  Jewish  people :  to'  the  young,  a  hope ;  to  the  old,  a 
dream ;  to  all  men.  something  beautiful."  The  hope,  the  dream, 
the  beauty  which  Herzl  gave  did  not  depart  from  the  Jewish 
people  with  his  departure.  Like  a  Pillar  of  Fire  in  the  night, 
his  luminous  example  still  moves  before  us  to  lead  us  onward 
to  the  Promised  Land. 


*Friedemann :  Das  Leben  Herzls. 

42 


THE  ZIONIST  ORGANIZATION. 

BY  BERNARD  A.  ROSENBLATT 

The  Zionist  movement  is  organized  on  a  democratic  basis,  so 
that  every  Jew  and  Jewess  who  endorses  the  program  of  "secur- 
ing a  legally  assured  home  for  the  Jewish  people  in  Palestine" 
has  an  equal  vote.  The  influence  of  the  individual  Zionist  in  the 
organization  depends  upon  his  or  her  ability,  sincerity  of  purpose, 
and  devotion  to  the  cause.  Since  Zionism  has  no  lucrative  offices 
to  distribute,  the  reward  for  services  in  the  organization  consists 
largely  in  affording  to  the  individual  Zionist  the  opportunity  for 
greater  services  in  the  future.  S'char  mitzva  mitzva. 

THE  SHEKEL. 

Anyone  who  is  desirous  of  working  for  the  Zionist  ideal  can 
enlist  as  a  soldier  in  Zionism  by  the  payment  of  the  shekel  each 
year.  The  payment  of  the  shekel,  or  poll  tax  on  the  Jewish  people, 
is  the  symbol  of  allegiance  to  the  Zionist  cause.  The  shekel  is 
the  name  of  an  ancient  Jewish  coin.  Half  a  shekel  was  the  tax 
paid  by  every  Jew  towards  the  maintenance  of  the  religious 
organization  of  the  Jewish  people,  and  the  Zionists  have  brought 
back  its  old  significance  by  using  it  as  the  tax  towards  the  upbuild- 
ing of  the  future  Jewish  commonwealth.  The  shekel  tax  is  fixed 
at  twenty-five  cents  in  American  money,  so  that  poor  as  well  as 
rich  may  have  equal  opportunity  to  signify  their  allegiance  to 
our  cause.  Upon  the  shekel  tax  the  whole  political  structure  of 
Zionism  is  built.  Every  group  of  four  hundred  shekel  payers 
has  the  right  to  select  one  delegate  to  the  International  Zionist 
Congress,  which  is  usually  held  biennially  in  the  summer  of  every 
odd-numbered  year.  After  the  various  groups  of  shekel  payers 
in  all  countries  have  selected  and  sent  their  delegates  to  the 
Zionist  Congress,  the  latter  body,  upon  the  opening  of  its  sessions, 
becomes  the  authoritative  and  supreme  power  in  Zionism. 

THE  CONGRESS. 

The  Congress  formulates  all  Zionist  policies ;  it  discusses  the 
Jewish  problems  of  the  day  and  presents  officially  the  arguments 
for  the  Zionist  solution  of  the  Jewish  question ;  it  determines  how 
the  funds  of  the  organization  shall  be  spent,  and,  finally,  it  selects 
the  officers  and  committees  who  are  charged  with  the  duty  of 
carrying  on  the  work  of  the  movement  in  the  interval  until  the 
next  Congress.  During  his  lifetime,  Dr.  Herzl  was  uniformly 
chosen  as  president  of  the  Zionist  movement,  and  Dr.  Max 
Nordau  was  chosen  vice-president.  They,  together  with  a  small 
committee,  carried  on  the  work  of  the  organization  from  1897 
until  1904. 

43 


ACTIONS  COMMITTEE. 

After  the  death  of  the  founder  of  modern  Zionism,  the  Con- 
gress adopted  the  policy  of  selecting  a  committee  of  five  or  six 
leading  Zionists  to  act  as  a  board  of  directors  for  the  organization 
between  one  Congress  and  the  next.  Thus,  at  the  present  time, 
entire  direction  of  Zionist  activity  is  centered  in  this  small 
Actions  Committee,  consisting,  at  the  present  time,  of  Dr. 
E.  Tschlenow,  Dr.  S.  Levin,  Prof.  O.  Warburg,  and  Messrs.  V. 
Jacobson,  A.  Hantke  and  N.  Sokolow.  This  small  Actions  Com- 
mittee is  supported  and  assisted  by  a  larger  Actions  Committee, 
chosen  by  the  Congress,  to  represent  the  constituent  Zionist  or- 
ganizations of  the  various  countries.  The  larger  Actions  Com- 
mittee meets  several  times  in  the  period  from  one  Congress  to 
another,  in  order  to  consult  with  the  smaller  Actions  Committee, 
and  to  advise  upon  plans  and  policies. 

ZIONIST  FEDERATIONS. 

Even  as  the  Congress  is  built  from  the  bottom  up  by  the 
shekel  payers,  so  the  international  Congress,  in  its  turn,  estab- 
lishes Zionist  Federations  in  the  various  countries  for  more  effec- 
tive local  Zionist  propaganda.  While  these  federations  are 
established  and  recognized  by  the  International  Zionist  Congress, 
the  democratic  character  of  the  local  organization  in  the  various 
countries  is  always  maintained  since  each  country's  federation 
is  composed  of  societies  or  groups  of  Zionists  who  voluntarily 
unite  themselves  in  order  to  advance  Zionist  principles.  Thus, 
the  Federation  of  American  Zionists  is  recognized  by  the  Inter- 
national Zionist  Congress  as  the  general  Zionist  body  for  the 
United  States  of  America.  The  policies  and  methods  of  the 
Federation,  however,  are  determined,  subject  to  the  general  rules 
laid  down  by  the  International  Congress,  by  an  annual  convention 
to  which  delegates  are  sent  from  the  various  constituent  societies. 
In  the  United  States,  every  society  affiliated  with  the  Federation 
has  the  right  to  send  one  delegate  for  each  twenty-five  of  its 
membership.  Each  federation  may,  for  convenience,  group  its 
societies  into  various  state  associations,  such  as  the  Texas,  Ohio 
or  Virginia  Zion  State  Associations,  as  well  as  into  larger  groups, 
representing  various  forms  of  propaganda  or  membership,  such 
as  the  Knights  of  Zion,  with  its  Zionist  propaganda  localized  in 
the  Middle  West,  the  Order  Sons  of  Zion,  which  is  the  insurance 
branch  of  the  Zionist  organization,  Hadassah,  the  women's 
Zionist  organization,  which  carries  on  a  system  of  District  Nurs- 
ing in  Palestine,  and  Young  Judaea,  the  junior  Zionist  organiza- 
tion. The  Mizrachi  and  the  Poalei  Zion  organizations  are  de- 
scribed in  the  essay  on  "Parties  in  Zionism,"  to  be  found  else- 
where in  this  volume. 

ZIONIST  BANKS. 

At  the  inception  of  the  Zionist  movement,  it  was  realized 
that  our  program  necessitated  the  upbuilding  of  strong  financial 

44 


agencies  for  carrying  out  practical  aims  in  Palestine.  Accordingly, 
the  Jewish  Colonial  Trust  was  established  in  London,  England. 
It  now  has  a  capital  of  nearly  two  million  dollars.  It  is  interesting 
to  note  that  most  of  this  money  has  been  subscribed  by  the  poorer 
classes  (a  share  is  of  the  par  value  of  only  $5.),  and  it  is  only 
recently  that  the  richer  classes  in  Jewry  have  become  sufficiently 
interested  to  contribute  largely  to  the  cause.  Perhaps  the  best 
work  carried  on  by  the  Jewish  Colonial  Trust  consists  of  the 
activity  of  its  subsidary  company,  the  Anglo-Palestine  Co.  The 
latter  has  branches  in  all  the  important  centers  in  Palestine,  in- 
cluding Jerusalem,  Jaffa,  Haifa,  etc.  It  has  been  successful  from 
the  point  of  view  of  the  profits  which  it  has  earned,  at  least  until 
the  outbreak  of  the  war ;  but  its  great  value  to  us  consists  in  the 
impetus  it  has  given  to  the  Jewish  development  of  Palestine  by 
the  loans  which  it  has  been  able  to  offer  the  Palestinian  farmers 
and  merchants.  By  encouraging  agricultural  and  industrial  enter- 
prises, the  Anglo-Palestine  Co.  has  been  perhaps  the  largest 
factor  in  the  Jewish  economic  upbuilding  of  the  Land  of  Israel. 

THE  JEWISH  NATIONAL  FUND. 

Perhaps  the  most  interesting  institution  in  the  Zionist 
movement  is  the  Jewish  National  Fund.  This  is  an  English  cor- 
poration, organized  by  Zionists  for  the  purpose  of  acquiring  land 
in  Palestine  as  an  inalienable  estate  of  the  Jewish  people.  It  is 
guided  by  a  unique  principle,  namely,  it  uses  practically  all  of 
its  fund  for  buying  land  and  developing  such  land;  but  it  is 
prohibited  under  its  charter  from  selling  any  land  which  it  may 
have  purchased.  As  a  result,  as  the  fund  continues  to  grow, 
more  and  more  land  passes  into  the  hands  of  the  company,  which 
holds  it  practically  as  a  trustee  for  the  Jewish  people.  The 
Jewish  National  Fund  has  already  passed  the  one  million  dollar 
mark,  and  its  income  is  increasing  rapidly  from  year  to  year. 

The  methods  of  collection  for  the  Jewish  National  Fund 
prove  that  Zionists  are  progressive  and  democratic  in  their 
propaganda.  Zionist  stamps  at  one  cent  each  are  sold  for  use  on 
letters.  Flowers  may  be  purchased  on  "Flower  Day"  and  Zionist 
flags  on  "Flag  Day".  Certificates  are  sold  for  sums  sufficient  to 
purchase  a  dunam  (one-quarter  of  an  acre)  of  land  in  Palestine, 
and  friends  may  inscribe  the  name  of  any  faithful  Zionist  in  the 
"Golden  Book,"  upon  the  payment  of  $50. 

PALESTINE  LAND  COMPANIES. 

The  Palestine  Land  Developing  Co.  has  been  organized  in 
Europe  as  an  agency  for  the  purchase  and  development  of  land, 
which  may  be  subdivided  into  estates  and  sold  or  leased  to  indi- 
vidual Jews.  It  has  not  yet  secured  a  sufficiently  large  capital  to 
enable  it  to  achieve  extraordinary  results,  but  it  has  done  pioneer 
work  in  Palestine,  from  which  we  should  profit  greatly  in  the  fu- 
ture. In  the  United  States,  a  number  of  Achoozas  have  been  organ- 
ized with  the  object  of  transplanting  their  members  as  Jewish 

45 


farmers  in  Palestine  upon  soil  purchased  and  developed  by  these 
societies.  The  general  plan  of  the  Achooza  is  to  accumulate  a  fund 
from  the  savings  of  its  members.  With  this  fund,  land  is  purchased 
and  developed,  so  that  each  member  will  be  able  to  secure  his 
farm  within  ten  years  from  the  organization  of  the  Achooza.  By 
that  time,  he  will  have  paid  into  the  common  fund  $1,400  or  more, 
depending  upon  the  size  of  the  farm  which  he  will  secure.  During 
the  last  two  years,  an  outgrowth  from  the  Achooza  movement, 
known  as  the  Zion  Commonwealth,  has  been  organized  in  this 
country  and  has  incorporated  a  social  program  with  its  Palestine 
policy.  It  aims  to  reserve  to  the  whole  community  all  the  land 
which  is  not  utilized  as  farming  estates,  so  that  the  benefits  from 
rents  of  city  property,  industrial  sites,  or  any  mineral  resources, 
will  be  secured  for  the  advantage  of  all  the  settlers  equally,  in- 
stead of  falling  to  the  fortune  of  individual  large  landholders. 

PROVISIONAL  ZIONIST  COMMITTEE. 

During  the  great  European  war,  owing  to  the  fact  that  com- 
munication with  the  European  headquarters  of  the  Zionist  move- 
ment became  very  difficult,  it  was  found  necessary  to  organize 
temporarily  in  the  United  States  a  Provisional  Executive  Com- 
mittee for  General  Zionist  Affairs.  We  were  fortunate  in  secur- 
ing the  leadership  of  Louis  D.  Brandeis,  who  acted  as 
the  chairman  of  this  committe.  Through  the  work  of  this  com- 
mittee, the  whole  movement  in  America  has  been  revolutionized 
in  less  than  two  years.  The  income  of  the  Zionist  Organization 
in  this  country  has  been  increased  more  than  twentyfold,  and  its 
strength  multiplied  in  like  proportion.  It  has  organized  a  bureau 
for  forwarding  money  to  Palestine,  and  during  the  last  year 
(1915-1916)  it  has  sent  through  that  office  alone  nearly  one 
thousand  ($1,000.)  dollars  every  day  to  the  Holy  Land.  It  has 
vitalized  all  our  Zionist  activities  in  this  country,  and  it  deserves 
mention  as  an  important  factor  in  the  Zionist  movement  of  the 
world. 

THE  JEWISH  SETTLEMENT  IN  PALESTINE. 

It  must  ever  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  future  of  Zionism  is 
necessarily  in  Palestine,  and  it  therefore  behooves  us  to  take  note 
of  the  organization  of  the  Jewish  settlement  in  the  Land  of  Israel. 
There  are  now  over  one  hundred  thousand  Jews  in  Palestine,  of 
whom  nearly  fifteen  thousand  are  grouped  in  the  agricultural 
colonies  which  are  the  backbone  of  the  future  Jewish  common- 
wealth. With  the  development  of  Hebrew  schools,  Hebraic  cul- 
ture has  already  become  a  dominant  force  in  Palestine.  The  agri- 
cultural and  industrial  efforts  of  our  brethren  are  preparing  the 
way  for  a  large  and  successful  Jewish  community.  All  the  colo- 
nies are  founded  on  a  democratic  basis,  so  that  we  may  be  certain 
that  the  Jews  in  Palestine  are  creating  a  community  of  which  we, 
as  American  Jews,  may  well  be  proud. 


46 


'PARTIES  IN  ZIONISM 

BY  Louis  LIPSKY 

When  a  general  moves  his  army  against  the  enemy  he  has, 
as  a  rule,  a  sketch  of  his  plans,  knows  his  own  strength,  and 
makes  a  topographical  map  of  the  country  which  he  must  pass. 

When  the  Zionist  movement  was  organized  by  Theodor 
Herzl,  he  had  no  idea  of  the  strength  of  the  party  behind  him. 
He  flung  his  idea  into  the  forum  of  public  discussion  and  re- 
cruited his  army  while  at  the  same  time  he  moved  forward  to 
his  objective  point. 

And  just  as  with  every  other  group  of  people  animated  by  one 
idea  as  to  the  ultimate  goal  toward  which  they  are  moving,  different 
plans  were  born  as  to  how  the  ultimate  goal  was  best  to  be 
attained. 

In  everyday  life  there  are  persons  who  move  slowly,  per- 
sons who  are  reckless,  persons  who  are  conservative  perhaps, 
who  are  animated  only  by  religious,  by  economic,  by  philo- 
sophical or  by  political  ideas.  In  American  life  these  differing 
points  of  view  have  produced  political  parties,  each  of  whom 
strives  to  impress  its  ideas  upon  the  features  of  the  govern- 
ment. 

So,  too,  in  Zionist  life.  Before  the  advent  of  Herzl,  there 
were  earnest,  idealistic  men  and  women  who  felt  that  the  re- 
nationalization  of  the  Jewish  people  could  be  accomplished  by 
the  gradual  colonization  of  Palestine.  These  men  and  women 
were  known  as  Lovers  of  Zion  (Chovevi  Zion).  They  felt  that 
a  new  settlement  of  Jews  in  Palestine,  eventually  arriving  at 
national  significance,  could  be  established  by  individual  Jews 
going  over  to  the  Holy  Land  and  settling  on  the  soil  as  farmers. 
On  increasing  in  number,  they  would  make  it  possible  for  the 
Jewish  people  to  regain  their  national  status.  They  appealed 
to  religious  sentiment,  to  national  feeling,  to  national  pride — 
in  fact,  to  any  motive  that  might  induce  individuals  to  sacrifice 
their  immediate  personal  interests  for  the  interests  of  the 
entire  Jewish  people. 

The  success  of  the  Chovevi  Zionists  was  not  considerable. 
Establishing  a  few  colonies,  they  found  themselves  lacking 
strength  to  go  on  with  the  organization  they  had  created.  The 
Chovevi  Zionist  movement  was  at  a  low  ebb  when  Herzl  came 
with  his  idea  of  political  Zionism,  the  Zionism  that  aimed  to 
solve  the  national  Jewish  problem  by  acquiring  political  recog- 
nition from  the  other  nations  of  the  world. 

In  line  with  his  endeavors,  Herzl  organized  the  first  Zionist 

47 


Congress,  the  National  Fund,  and  the  Jewish  Colonial  Trust. 
These  three  institutions  were  to  be  the  instruments  for  acquiring 
Jewish  national  rights  in  Palestine.  First,  the  Congress,  in 
which  the  democratic  character  of  Zionism  was  to  be  the  feature, 
showing  that  the  Jewish  people  demanded  national  recognition. 
Second,  the  Bank,  with  which  to  conduct  the  negotiations  with 
the  Powers,  who  were  to  guarantee  certain  concessions,  or  an  all- 
inclusive  charter.  Then  the  National  Fund,  with  which  to  ac- 
quire the  land. 

The  question  arose  early  in  the  history  of  Zionism,  How 
would  Zionism  deal  with  the  religious  question,  with  the  capital 
and  labor  question,  with  the  question  of  education?  Was  Zion- 
ism to  be  based  on  the  prevailing  democratic  ideals  of  govern- 
ment? The  Democratic  fraction,  formed  at  one  of  the  early 
Congresses,  was  organized  to  meet  the  last  question.  Was 
Zionism  to  stand  for  the  separation  of  Synagogue  and  State? 
That  was  answered  by  the  formation  of  the  orthodox  Mizrachi. 
What  was  Zionism  to  say  regarding  the  rights  of  labor?  That 
was  answered  by  the  formation  of  the  Poale  Zion  party.  And 
then  another  party  was  formed,  occupying  a  position  in  a  sense 
outside  the  official  Zionist  camp,  which  declared  that  political 
Zionism,  or  the  Zionism  that  aimed  to  establish  a  national  entity 
by  diplomatic  negotiations,  had  no  validity,  and  that  a  nation 
could  be  established  only  by  creating  a  national  cultural  center. 
This  party,  which  has  never  attained  an  official  character,  is  the 
Cultural  party,  the  leading  figure  of  which  is  the  Hebrew  phil- 
osopher, Achad  Haam,  in  everyday  life  known  as  Asher  Ginsberg. 
The  Cultural  ideals  of  Achad  Haam  have  colored  the  views  of 
Zionists  of  all  parties. 

These  represent  the  conflicting  or  various  strivings  within 
the  Zionist  organization.  They  are,  in  a  sense,  similar  in  intent 
to  what  in  America  are  known  as  the  Republican  party,  the 
Democratic  party,  the  Progressive  party,  the  Socialist  party. 
They  all  agree  that  the  national  life  must  be  preserved  and 
strengthened,  but  disagree  as  to  what  policies  or  principles 
shall  rule  in  the  government  which  crowns  it  all.  So,  too,  in 
Zionism.  All  our  parties  are  agreed  as  to  the  need  for  a  na- 
tional rebirth.  They  may  differ,  without  losing  their  place  in 
the  movement,  as  to  the  way  this  end  is  to  be  attained,  or  as  to 
the  features  of  the  national  life  that  are  to  be  emphasized  in 
order  to  be  successful. 

THE  CHOVEVI  ZIONIST  PARTY. 

Although  Herzlian  Zionism  secured  the  mastery  over  all 
other  phases  of  the  national  movement,  it  never  actually  over- 
came them.  During  Herzl's  life,  the  Chovevi  Zionist  ideas  of 
many  within  the  movement  retired  into  the  background.  Herzl 
succeeded  in  organizing  Zionism,  giving  it  world  significance, 
establishing  institutions,  opening  negotiations  for  securing  a 

48 


Charter;  and,  while  our  great  leader  was  engaged  in  these 
great  efforts,  all  other  parties  remained  in  retirement,  hoping 
for  his  success  and  willing  to  abide  by  the  results  of  his  efforts. 
But  as  his  tactics  revealed  more  and  more  that  auxiliary  efforts 
had  to  be  maintained,  that  pending  the  securing  of  the  Charter 
the  masses  of  Jews  could  not  be  held  to  Zionism,  the  old  Chovevi 
Zionism,  believing  in  colonization  without  political  guarantees, 
returned  to  power.  Under  the  leadership  of  M.  M.  Ussischkin, 
an  engineer  in  Russia,  a  dominant  personality  with  unusual 
powers  of  organization,  the  Chovevi  Zionist  party,  or  the  im- 
mediate colonization  party,  became  stronger,  as  the  Herzlian 
tactics  showed  themselves  to  be  unfruitful  in  immediate  results. 

Herzl  said:  Without  a  charter  of  rights,  we  cannot  move 
into  Palestine.  As  a  first  requirement  of  Palestinian  coloniza- 
tion, we  must  have  political  security.  Such  political  security  at 
that  time  could  be  obtained  only  through  the  exercise  of  power 
by  the  Great  Nations  over  the  Ottoman  empire,  over  which 
ruled  an  autocrat.  We  must,  said  Herzl,  prepare  for  the  mo- 
ment when  such  security  can  be  purchased.  We  must  gather  a 
national  fund,  we  must  organize  a  financial  corporation,  and 
must  call  upon  every  influence  that  may  be  useful  for  our  ends. 

He  went  about  securing  political  influence ;  he  organized  the 
institutions  mentioned;  but  as  the  time  seemed  distant  for  that 
recognition  which  he  sought,  and  as  he  himself,  for  diplomatic 
reasons,  endeavored  to  divert  the  attention  of  the  Jewish  peo- 
ple from  Palestine  to  other  lands,  it  was  felt  by  many,  and,  to 
some  extent  by  Herzl  himself,  that  immediate  work  in  Palestine 
must  be  begun. 

Immediate  work  in  Palestine  thus  became  the  slogan  of 
the  Chovevi  Zionists,  who  became  more  insistent  that  the  Con- 
gress should  take  up  what  they  called  practical  work.  At  this 
juncture  Herzl  died,  having  given  his  life  and  fortune  to  Zionism, 
and  having,  in  effect,  by  the  appointment  of  a  Palestine  Commis- 
sion, laid  the  foundation  for  the  practical  work  that,  followed. 

The  Chovevi  Zionists  believe  in  securing  the  preponderance 
of  influence  in  Palestine  for  the  Jewish  people  by  settling  Jews 
at  once,  investing  Jewish  capital,  and  engaging  in  immediate  in- 
dustry. The  Ottoman  empire  having  meanwhile  been  trans- 
formed from  an  autocracy  into  a  constitutional  monarchy,  there 
remained  no  obstacles  in  the  way  of  free  Jewish  enterprise  in 
Palestine. 

THE  MIZRACHI  PARTY 

This  party  was  formed  at  one  of  the  first  Congresses  by 
Rabbi  Reiness  and  other  orthodox  leaders  to  safeguard  the  re- 
ligious interests  of  the  Jewish  people  within  the  movement  and 
the  religious  character  of  institutions  in  Palestine.  It  aimed 
to  maintain  the  neutral  character  of  Herzlian  Zionism  in  edu- 

49 


cational  matters.  It  was  impressed  by  Herzl's  political  ideas, 
and  wished  to  have  a  large  number  of  orthodox  Zionists  in  the 
organization  in  order,  first  to  strengthen  Zionism,  and,  second,  to 
prevent  Zionism  from  becoming  responsible  for  politics  that 
denied  traditional  Judaism. 

It  favors  practical  work  in  Palestine,  but  is  opposed  to  the 
Zionist  organization  giving  any  support  to  enterprises  of  a  cul- 
tural character,  such  as  schools.  It  is  opposed  to  the  culture 
Zionism  of  Achad  Haam.  It  is  in  a  sense  the  critic  of  Zionism 
from  a  religious  point  of  view.  While  it  is  religious,  it  does  not 
ask  the  Zionist  movement  to  support  religious  institutions  in 
Palestine,  believing  that  all  education  should  be  left  to  private 
enterprise. 

Being  composed  of  orthodox  Jews,  its  propaganda  is  limited 
to  that  element  of  the  Jewish  people.  Zionism  coming  from  the 
lips  of  orthodox  observers  and  learned  men  is  bound  to  impress 
the  religious  Jew  with  the  need  for  Zionism. 

The  Mizrachists  are  represented  in  the  Congress  by  dele- 
gates, and  they  have  a  Federation  of  Mizrachi  groups  scattered 
in  every  country. 

THE  POALE  ZION  PARTY. 

The  Poale  Zionists  are  socialistic  Zionists.  They  seek  to 
influence  the  Zionist  organization  to  the  end  that  it  will  avoid 
the  mistakes  of  the  present  industrial  system  and  establish  in 
Palestine  as  far  as  possible  a  system  of  society  which  will  give 
the  working  classes  the  opportunity  to  rise  in  influence  and 
power.  It  therefore  objects  to  all  forms  of  Palestine  industry 
that  operate  on  a  capitalistic  basis.  It  stimulates  the  forming 
of  labor  unions  in  Palestine.  It  objects  to  the  capitalistic  sys- 
tem of  employment  of  labor,  and  by  establishing  colonies  of  a 
communistic  character,  tries  to  impress  upon  Palestine  as  much 
as  possible  its  socialistic  tendencies. 

In  this  they  have  the  powerful  aid  of  Jewish  tradition,  the 
Mosaic  law,  the  decisions  of  the  rabbis  and  the  general  feeling 
that  Zionism  appeals  to  the  feeling  of  brotherhood  in  all  Jews. 
With  this  background  of  sentiment  and  tradition,  they  hope  to 
minimize  as  much  as  possible  the  evils  of  the  competitive  system. 

The  National  Fund  appeals  to  them  more  than  does  any 
other  Zionist  institution.  They  are  responsible  for  the  adoption 
by  the  National  Fund  of  the  Oppenheimer  co-operative  settle- 
ment plan,  which  is  being  tried  out  in  the  colonies  of  Merchavia 
and  Dagania.  Numerically,  they  are  not  strong,  but  their  groups, 
especially  in  Galicia,  are  made  up  of  energetic  persons  who  are 
capable  of  unusual  sacrifices.  In  America  they  maintained  for 
many  years  a  weekly  Yiddish  paper,  and  they  are  a  considerable 
factor  in  Zionist  propaganda. 

50 


THE  HERZLIAN  PARTY. 

During  Herzl's  life,  a  large  number  of  leading  Zionists,  es- 
pecially those  who  controlled  the  administration  of  Zionist  insti- 
tutions and  of  the  Zionist  organizations,  were  known  as  political 
Zionists,  as  distinguished  from  all  other  partisans.  These  politi- 
cal Zionists  laid  emphasis  upon  the  political  aspects  of  Zionist 
problems,  and  insisted  that  only  by  acquiring  political  recogni- 
tion and  legal  right  to  admission  to  Palestine  could  the  Jewish 
problem  be  solved.  They  believed  that  a  grant  of  rights  was 
essential,  and  that  all  Zionist  enterprise,  whether  in  the  Golus  or 
in  Palestine,  should  be  directed  to  forcing  the  desired  political 
recognition.  Acting  on  this  policy,  Herzl  sought  to  inspire  a 
mass  movement  among  the  Jews,  and  based  all  his  endeavors 
on  the  theory  that  the  Jewish  people  could  be  awakened  to  na- 
tional consciousness.  With  this  mass  movement  be"hind  him, 
he  hoped  to  secure  political  recognition.  All  Palestine  work 
was  regarded  by  him  merely  as  a  source  of  political  power. 
Necessarily,  he  was  not  so  much  a  lover  of  Zion  as  a  believer  in 
the  Jewish  people.  He  placed  the  Jewish  people  above  the  land, 
the  land  being  only  an  incident  to  the  regeneration  of  the  people. 

But  even  Herzl  conceded  points  to  those  who  opposed  him, 
and  in  his  administration  one  fails  to  find  much  of  a  difference 
in  fact  between  him  and  his  opponents.  He  organized  the  Pales- 
tine commission,  but  he  also  organized  the  Uganda  expedition. 
He  regarded  them  both  from  the  same  point  of  view. 

With  his  death,  his  followers  lost  not  only  a  leader,  but  a 
plan  of  action.  They  lacked  the  imagination  and  daring  of  the 
founder  of  the  organization,  and  soon  degenerated  into  a  pseudo- 
opposition  party,  co-operating,  rather  unwillingly,  in  practical 
work  in  Palestine,  but  ever  ready  to  criticize  the  practicability 
of  the  work. 

At  the  Vienna  Congress  in  1914  they  attempted  to  form  a 
party,  but,  lacking  a  common  point  of  agreement,  the  movement 
failed.  But  at  the  outbreak  of  the  war  there  seemed  to  be  on 
foot  a  strong  desire  on  the  part  of  the  political  Zionists  to  formu- 
late a  policy  which  would  give  recognition  to  Palestine  enter- 
prises, and,  at  the  same  time,  reassert  the  political  aspects  of 
the  situation. 

Unfortunately,  the  outbreak  of  the  war  precluded  such  an 
organization ;  but  the  war  itself  seems  to  have  strengthened  the 
position  of  the  political  Zionists,  and  a  number  of  leading  Zion- 
ists friendly  to  the  Chovevi  Zionist  policy  have  come  to  recognize 
the  importance  of  political  action,  and  even  the  necessity  of 
exclusive  political  action. 

Prophecy  would  be  of  no  value,  but  it  is  clear  that  inasmuch 
as  the  war  has  evoked  the  national  spirit  of  all  peoples,  it  will 
also  make  a  deep  impression  upon  the  Jewish  people.  Those 
Zionists  who  affected  to  ignore  political  action  now  realize  that 
all  national  endeavors  must  be  safeguarded  by  political  bulwarks, 
without  which  no  human  energy  can  succeed. 

51 


PALESTINE  AND  ADJACENT 
£4^.    PROVINCES  WITH  RAILROADS 


Rivers 

Railroads  in  Operation 

Projected  Railroads 


I  JUDEA 

1  Abu  Djudje 

2  En-Gannim 

3  Artuf 

4  Ben  Shamen 

5  Bir  Adas 

6  Bir  Jacob 

7  Dilb 

8  Djemama 

9  Ekron 

10  Hulda 

11  Kafruria 

12  Kastinieh 

13  Katra 

14  Mikweb.  Israel 

15  Moza 

16  Petah  Tikwah 

17  Rehobot 

18  Rishon  le-Zion 

19  Wady 

el-Hanin 

20  Jehudieh 

II  SAMARIA 

21  Athlit 

22  Hederah 

23  Hefzi-bah 

24  Kafr  Saba 

25  Kerkur-Bedug 

26  Zichron  Jacob 

27  Tantura 

III  GALILEE 

28  En-Zeitun 

29  Bedjen 

30  Hattin 

31  Yemma 

32  Kinneret 

33  Milhamich 

34  Merhawiah 

35  Mesha 

36  Metullab. 

37  Medjdel 

38  Mishmar 

ha-Yarden 

39  Mizpah 

40  Poriah 

41  Rosh-Pinnah 

42  Sedjera 

43  Ycsod 

ha-Maalah 

IV  TRANS- 

JORDANIA 

44  Bene  Jebudah 

45  Daganiah 

46  Mataba 


THE  JEWISH  COLONIES  OP  PALESTINE 

Courtesy  of  Jewish  Publication  Society 

Population  of  Palestine  -     Over  600,000 

Jewish  Population  of  Palestine      -  -  90,000 

Jewish  Population  of  Cities  -    About  75,000 

Jewish    Population    of    Colonies  -     Over  15,000 

Number  of  Self-Governing  Colonies  -  43 


52 


WHAT  OUR  PIONEERS  HAVE  CREATED 

ADAPTED  FROM  HENRIETTA  SZOLD:  "RECENT  JEWISH 
PROGRESS  IN  PALESTINE" 

BY  MARGARET  GLUCK 

The  pioneers  of  America,  the  Pilgrim  Fathers,  are  well  known 
to  every  American  boy  and  girl.  All  are  familiar  with  the  story  of 
that  valiant  group  of  men  and  women  who,  being  denied  the  free- 
dom to  worship  God  according  to  their  conscience,  left  their  native 
land  and  set  sail  for  the.  bleak  and  inhospitable  shores  of  an  unknown 
country — America.  There  they  willingly  accepted  hardships  and 
privations  of  every  nature  in  order  to  be  free  to  live  true  to  their 
ideals.  The  heroism,  self-sacrifice  and  persistency  of  these  pioneers 
in  their  loyalty  to  an  ideal  call  forth  our  highest  respect  and  admira- 
tion. 

Pioneering  work  is  not  at  an  end.  There  exists  today  a  group 
of  Jewish  pioneers  equally  as  valiant  and  idealistic  as  the  Pilgrim 
Fathers,  but  their  work  is  not  as  well  known,  for  it  is  still  in  the 
making. 

This  Jewish  pioneering  movement  had  its  beginnings  in  Russia 
immediately  after  the  outbreak  of  the  pogroms  of  1880.  These 
pogroms,  coming  at  a  time  when  the  Jews  were  voluntarily  giving 
up  much  of  their  distinctiveness,  disillusioned  completely  that  group 
which  had  hoped  to  find  in  the  emancipation  and  enlightenment 
recently  acquired  the  solution  for  the  Jewish  Problem. 

The  men  in  this  Haskallah  group,  as  it  was  called,  were  known 
as  Maskillim.  They  aimed  to  broaden  their  scope  of  knowledge  by 
becoming  acquainted  with  the  literature  and  culture  of  other  nations. 
On  the  one  hand,  this  movement  had  the  very  beneficial  influence 
of  reviving  to  some  extent  the  Hebrew  language,  for  the  Maskillim 
also  translated  the  literature  of  the  other  peoples  into  their  own 
tongue.  On  the  other  hand,  it  threatened  to  end  in  assimilation,  in 
the  attempt  on  the  part  of  the  Maskillim  to  imitate  completely  the 
life  and  culture  of  surrounding  peoples. 

The  progroms  averted  this  danger.  The  Russian  Jew  was 
forced  to  realize  that  he  had  chosen  the  wrong  path  in  seeking  to 
assimilate,  and  that  he  must  blaze  for  himself  another  path. 

It  was  then  that  the  groups  of  pioneers  were  formed.  They 
sought  a  home.  They  needed  a  spot  where  they  could  have  liberty 
as  a  group,  where  they  could  be  free  to  worship,  to  live  and  to 
develop  according  to  their  own  ideals,  according  to  their  own  law 
and  tradition. 

The  dream  was  not  new  with  the  pioneers.  For  two  thousand 
years  the  Jewish  people  had  kept  alive  the  memory  of  the  marvel- 

53 


lous  achievements  of  their  ancestors  when  they  were  yet  a  nation  in 
their  own  land,  Palestine.  For  two  thousand  years  they  had  been 
praying  and  yearning  to  be  restored  to  that  land.  Nowhere  in  his- 
tory is  there  another  such  example  of  devotion  to  a  country.  The 
stories  of  the  False  Messiahs,  showing  the  eagerness  of  the  Jewish 
people  to  follow  anybody  promising  to  lead  them  back  into  Palestine, 
are  a  tragic  but  faithful  indication  of  the  intensity  of  their  yearning 
for  their  home. 

So  sacred  had  Palestine  become  to  the  Jew  that  it  was  con- 
sidered a  "mitzvah,"  a  consecrated  duty,  for  old  Jews  to  return  to 
Palestine  so  as  to  spend  their  last  years  and  find  a  final  resting 
place  in  the  soil  of  the  Holy  Land. 

At  all  times  since  the  dispersion  there  has  been  a  small  settle- 
ment of  such  Jews  in  the  city  of  Jerusalem  who  spend  their  time 
entirely  in  study.  Jews  living  in  lands  of  the  diaspora  consider  it  a 
religious  duty  to  support  them,  for  through  this  support  they  show 
their  attachment  and  loyalty  to  Palestine.  This  beautiful  custom 
has  unfortunately  had  a  degenerating  effect  on  the  Jews  in  Jerusa- 
lem. It  has  resulted  in  pauperizing  them.  The  fund  for  the  sup- 
port of  these  Jerusalem  Jews  is  known  as  the  Chaluckah. 

The  pioneers,  however,  did  not  return  for  the  purpose  of  study 
alone.  The  loyalty  of  succeeding  generations  of  Jews  to  Palestine 
and  to  the  Jewish  people  had  developed  in  them  an  intense  Jewish 
consciousness.  They  looked  back  with  pride  to  the  splendid  achieve- 
ments of  their  people  in  the  past,  and  resolved  to  return  to  their 
old  home  so  as  to  prepare  for  the  Jewish  people  a  future  worthy 
of  its  past. 

EARLY  TRIALS 

The  task  they  undertook  proved  more  difficult  than  even  the 
staunchest  of  them  had  imagined.  Palestine  had  been  sorely  neglect- 
ed during  the  long  absence  of  the  Jews  and  large  sections  of  it  had 
become  waste  swamp  land.  The  pioneers  did  not  know  this  until 
they  had  settled  in  the  districts  and  hundreds  died  of  malaria. 
There  is  record  of  one  colony  which  was  completely  wiped  out 
by  malaria.  All  that  remained  of  it  was  a  graveyard. 

In  addition  to  the  unfavorable  conditions  of  the  land,  the  colon- 
ists were  also  greatly  handicapped  by  their  lack  of  agricultural 
knowledge.  They  had  been  trained  for  the  university  and  for  the 
business  world,  not  for  the  fields.  They  had  been  accustomed  to 
the  conveniences  of  cities  and  towns  and  not  to  the  hardships  of  an 
agricultural  life. 

The  success  of  the  colonization  work  can  be  attributed  only  to 
the  powerful  determination  of  the  pioneers  to  bring  about  the  Jewish 
National  Restoration.  For  that  end  no  sacrifice  was  considered  too 
great.  They  gave  up  freely  not  only  the  material  things  of  life — 
comfort,  pleasure  and  a  comparatively  easy  existence — they  gave 
their  very  life-blood. 

54 


The  first  of  the  forty-six  agricultural  colonies  established  in  Pales- 
tine was  Petach  Tikvah  (Door  of  Hope).  Jews  in  Jerusalem  had 
also  become  imbued  with  the  nationalistic  aspiration,  and,  in  1878,  a 
small  number  of  them  journeyed  to  a  section  nearer  the  Mediter- 
ranean Coast  and  there  founded  Petach  Tikvah.  They  were,  how- 
ever, too  weak  for  the  work. 

When  a  band  of  Russian  pioneers  arrived  in  Palestine  two  years 
later,  Petach  Tikvah  was  found  deserted.  These  Russian  pioneers, 
fired  with  the  enthusiasm  and  zeal  which  distinguish  the  Russian 
Jew,  soon  rebuilt  Petach  Tikvah  and  also  founded  another  colony, 
which  they  named  Rishon-le-Zion  (First  in  Zion). 

From  this  time  on  there  were  constant  migrations  to  Palestine, 
particularly  from  Russia,  Poland  and  Galicia,  where  the  Chovevi 
Zion,  "the  lovers  of  Zion,"  had  their  headquarters,  with  branches 
all  over  Europe  and  in  the  United  States.  The  aim  of  the  Chovevi 
Zion  was  to  establish  agricultural  colonies  in  Palestine. 

In  1897,  under  the  leadership  of  Dr.  Theodor  Herzl,  a  new 
Jewish  movement  was  launched.  This  movement  embodied  in  pur- 
pose the  aim  of  the  Chovevi  Zion  Society  and  much  else  besides. 
The  Zionist  Movement,  as  it  became  known,  was  not  satisfied  with 
establishing  agricultural  communities  merely.  It  aimed  to  create 
in  Palestine  a  home  for  the  Jewish  nation.  It  planned  to  secure 
Palestine  not  by  war,  but  through  the  purchase  of  political  conces- 
sions. By  means  of  diplomacy,  it  aimed  to  have  Palestine  "publicly 
recognized"  by  the  world  as  the  national  home  of  the  Jewish  people. 
This  purpose  was  concretely  set  forth  in  the  platform  of  the  Zionist 
organization  adopted  at  the  first  Congress  held  in  Basle,  Switzer- 
land. 

THE  JEWISH  NATIONAL  FUND. 

Perhaps  the  most  important,  and  certainly  the  most  popular, 
institution  created  by  the  Zionist  organization  is  the  Jewish  National 
Fund.  This  is  the  Jewish  treasury.  Its  purpose  is  to  acquire  by 
purchase  the  Jewish  land  for  the  Jewish  people.  Based  on  the 
passage  from  Leviticus,  "The  land  shall  not  be  sold  in  perpetuity, 
for  the  land  is  Mine,"  the  Jewish  National  Fund  provides  in  its 
statutes  that  no  piece  of  land  bought  by  the  Fund  can  ever  be  sold 
to  an  individual.  All  land  that  it  purchases  in  Palestine  is  the 
property  of  the  entire  Jewish  people  forever. 

The  resources  of  the  National  Fund,  which  now  amount  to 
over  a  million  dollars,  have  been  gathered  from  among  the  Jewish 
masses — the  poorest  having  contributed  his  mite  to  the  fund  of  the 
people.  The  principal  means  employed  for  increasing  this  fund  are 
sale  of  National  Fund  stamps,  collections  from  National  Fund 
boxes,  inscriptions  in  the  Golden  Book  and  subscriptions  to  the 
Olive  Tree  Fund. 

The  Olive  Tree  Fund  serves  several  ends.  It  is  a  source  of 
revenue  for  the  National  Fund,  a  means  of  re-afforestating  Pales- 

55 


tine  and  providing  employment  to  the  Jewish  farm  laborers  in  the 
planting  of  the  trees.  Later,  when  the  trees  bear  fruit  and  the 
olives  are  sold,  the  profits  will  be  devoted  to  Jewish  education  in 
Palestine. 

The  Golden  Book,  too,  besides  increasing  the  resources  of  the 
National  Fund,  was  intended  as  an  honor  roll  of  the  Jewish  people, 
where  the  names  of  its  great  men  and  women  might  be  inscribed. 
The  National  Fund  receives  the  sum  of  $50.00  for  the  inscription 
of  each  name. 

Zionists  the  world  over  have  also  set  aside  two  days  of  the 
year,  known  as  Flower  Day  and  Flag  Day,  both  of  which  are 
devoted  to  securing  collections  for  the  Jewish  National  Fund. 

It  has  become  customary  to  give  special  donations  to  the  Na- 
tional Fund  on  the  day  commemorating  the  fall  of  Jerusalem, 
Tishabeav.  This  act  illustrates  well  the  new  spirit  of  the  Jewish 
people.  The  day  of  passive  mourning  is  over  for  them.  The  day 
of  revived  hope  and  action  has  begun. 

The  Jewish  National  Fund,  besides  purchasing  land  in  Pales- 
tine, has  recently  also  provided  for  the  building  of  homes,  particu- 
larly for  the  Yemenite  Jews,  who  have  come  in  very  large  numbers 
from  Arabia. 

These  Yemenite  Jews  had  lived  in  Arabia  for  twenty-four  cen- 
turies and  had  come  to  regard  it  as  a  permanent  home.  But  they, 
too,  suffered  the  tragic  fate  of  the  Jew  of  the  dispersion.  Not- 
withstanding the  fact  that  they  had  been  in  Arabia  for  centuries, 
that  during  this  time  they  had  contributed  their  full  share  toward 
enriching  the  country,  they  were  persecuted  solely  because  they  were 
Jews,  and  as  Jews  were  considered  an  alien  people  who  had  no 
place  in  the  land  of  the  Arab. 

In  their  restored  home,  Palestine,  the  Yemenite  Jews  have 
proved  themselves  very  valuable  to  the  colonists,  as  they  are  more 
accustomed  to  agricultural  life  than  the  European  Jew,  and  are  also 
more  familiar  with  the  customs  and  language  of  the  native  peoples. 

LAND  DEVELOPMENT  COMPANIES 

There  are  some  tracts  of  land  in  Palestine  which  cannot  be 
bought  in  small  plots.  The  purchaser  must  take  over  the  entire 
estate.  In  order  that  the  colonists  might  acquire  parts  of  such 
estates,  several  land  development  companies  have  been  formed  to 
purchase  these  large  tracts  of  land  and  divide  them  up  into  small 
plots  for  sale  to  the  colonists. 

The  largest  of  the  land  purchasing  organizations  are  the  Jewish 
Colonization  Association  (ICA)  and  the  Palestine  Land  Development 
Company.  Estates  purchased  through  these  organizations  are  com- 
pletely developed,  roads  are  built,  irrigating  systems  provided,  trees 
planted  and  the  land  made  ready  for  occupancy  before  being  turned 
over  to  the  owners.  In  this  way,  the  land  is  made  productive  and 
begins  to  yield  its  owner  an  assured  income  before  he  actually  set- 
tles in  Palestine. 

56 


The  Achooza  and  the  Zion  Commonwealth  are  American  organ- 
izations which  purchase  land  on  similar  plans.  The  colony  Poriah 
in  Galilee  was  founded  by  the  St.  Louis  group  of  the  Achooza. 

THE  WORK  OF  BARON  ROTHSCHILD. 

The  colonists  had  a  ioyal  and  generous  friend  in  the  person  of 
Baron  Edmund  de  Rothschild,  without  whose  material  aid  perhaps 
all  the  self-sacrifice  and  labor  of  the  early  pioneers  would  have  been 
wasted  and  many  of  the  agricultural  and  industrial  enterprises 
would  have  been  impossible. 

Large  sections  of  Palestine,  especially  in  the  vicinity  of  the 
colony  Rechoboth,  yield  an  abundance  of  grapes.  The  first  few 
years  these  large  vintages  rotted  away,  as  there  was  no  place  where 
the  grapes  could  be  properly  stored  or  pressed  into  wine.  Now 
there  is  a  large,  well-constructed  wine  cellar  in  Rishon-le-Zion,  built 
for  the  colonists  by  Baron  Rothschild. 

The  building  of  this  wine  cellar  has  resulted  in  the  development 
of  the  largest  and  most  successful  industry  in  Palestine.  So  profit- 
able has  the  grape  and  wine  industry  grown  that  the  colonists  have 
been  able  to  return  to  Baron  Rothschild  a  part  of  the  money  he 
loaned  them  for  the  building  of  the  cellars. 

The  colony  Petach  Tikvah  owes  a  particular  debt  of  gratitude 
to  Baron  Rothschild.  After  its  reorganization  it  was  again  on  the 
verge  of  ruin  because  of  malarial  conditions  due  to  marshy  regions. 

After  some  experimenting  it  was  found  that  a  certain  Aus- 
tralian tree,  the  eucalyptus,  had  the  capacity  of  absorbing  moisture. 
Baron  Rothschild  imported  a  great  number  of  these  trees,  had  them 
planted  throughout  Petach  Tikvah,  and  in  a  short  time  this  swamp 
and  hotbed  of  malaria  became  a  healthful  and  beautiful  tree  covered 
section. 

The  same  experiment  was  tried  in  other  marshy  sections  and 
everywhere  the  eucalyptus  proved  successful.  It  is  interesting  to 
note  that  the  eucalyptus  is  now  known  by  the  Arabs  as  the  "Jews' 
tree." 


JEWISH  COLONIAL  TRUST. 
ANGLO-PALESTINE  BANK. 

Just  as  the  founding  of  the  Zionist  organization  introduced  a 
broad,  statesmanlike  viewpoint  in  Jewish  affairs  and  brought  about 
the  adoption  of  modern  means  for  the  attainment  of  its  ends  gen- 
erally, so  in  the  colonies  it  fostered  and  brought  about  the  adoption 
of  modern  commercial  systems. 

Zionists  realized  that  while  the  assistance  of  Baron  de  Roths- 
child had  been  of  inestimable  value  to  the  pioneers,  a  continuance  of 
philanthropic  methods  would  not  have  wholesome  effects  on  the 
development  of  the  new  settlement.  The  knowledge  that  the  means 

57 


for  carrying  on  their  work  was  dependent  on  the  bounty  of  one 
man  would  in  time  have  destroyed  even  the  strong  sense  of  inde- 
pendence among  the  colonists. 

Some  means  had  to  be  devised  whereby  material  assistance 
could  be  given  the  colonists  on  a  purely  businesslike  basis.  To  meet 
this  need  the  Zionist  organization  established  the  Anglo-Palestine 
Bank. 

This  bank  is  a  branch  institution  of  the  Jewish  Colonial  Trust, 
which  was  organized  to  finance  the  work  of  the  Zionist  movement. 
Through  the  Anglo-Palestine  Bank  the  colonists  are  a!51e  to  borrow 
large  sums  of  money  for  building  and  agricultural  purposes.  The 
money  is  given  not  in  the  form  of  a  gift,  as  had  previously  been 
the  custom,  but  as  a  strictly  commercial  loan. 

During  the  financial  crisis  created  by  the  present  war,  the 
Anglo-Palestine  Bank  averted  a  panic  by  issuing  paper  bank  notes, 
which  were  accepted  and  discounted  at  unusually  low  rates. 

JEWISH  AGRICULTURAL  EXPERIMENT.  STATION. 

In  the  United  States  the  Government  conducts  what  is  known 
as  the  Department  of  Agriculture  for  the  aid  of  those  in  the  country 
engaged  in  agricultural  pursuits.  It  employs  agricultural  experts 
to  experiment  with  various  products,  to  cultivate  through  cross- 
fertilization,  to  find  just  what  kind  of  soil  is  best  suited  for  each 
product,  and  what  products  each  farmer  can  raise  most  successfully 
on  his  particular  soil. 

This  same  work  now  is  being  done  for  Palestine  by  the  Jewish 
Agricultural  Experiment  Station,  headed  by  Dr.  Aaron  Aaronson 
and  founded  and  supported  by  a  group  of  American  Jews. 

The  Experiment  Station  has  gained  world-wide  renown  in  the 
agricultural  field  through  its  discovery  of  wild  wheat.  In  fact,  it 
was  this  discovery  by  Dr.  Aaronson  which  led  to  the  founding  of 
the  Experiment  Station.  Agriculturists  had  been  seeking  this  for 
years,  as  it  was  needed  for  the  cultivation  of  a  species  of  wheat  which 
could  be  grown  in  dry  regions  where  highly  cultivated  wheat  does 
not  thrive. 

Dr.  Aaronson  is  at  present  experimenting  with  the  cultivation 
of  this  wild  wheat.  If  he  succeeds  in  his  work,  Palestine  will  have 
made  an  added  and  entirely  unlocked  for  contribution  to  the  world 
through  discovering  the  product  which  will  increase  the  bread  sup- 
ply of  the  world  four-fold. 

THE  "SHOMERIM." 

The  colonists  have  been  fortunate  in  not  arousing  much  antag- 
onism from  the  native  Turks  and  Arabs  in  Palestine.  The  only 
people  who  have  molested  them  in  any  way  are  the  Bedouins,  a 
semi-barbaric  tribe. 

These  Bedouins  despised  the  Jews  until  recently  as  physical 

58 


weaklings,  and  made  frequent  raids  upon  the  fields  and  vineyards 
of  the  colonists.  They  continued  this  to  such  extent  that  the  colonists 
found  it  necessary  to  employ  watchmen  to  protect  their  property. 
These  watchmen,  however,  also  being  Arabs,  were  in  league  with 
the  Bedouins  and  often  only  aided  them  in  their  plunders. 

The  situation  caused  the  colonists  much  anxiety.  They  were 
at  a  loss  to  find  means  of  protecting  their  property.  Finally,  there 
evolved,  from  among  the  colonists  themselves,  what  is  now  known 
as  the  Hashomer  Organization,  the  Jewish  Guard.  This  is  a  group 
of  the  bravest  and  most  stalwart  youths  in  the  colonies,  young  men 
who  take  upon  themselves  the  safeguarding  of  the  lives  and  property 
of  the  other  colonists  at  the  risk  of  losing  their  own  lives  in  combats 
with  the  Bedouins. 

The  Shomerim  can  ride  bareback  and  shoot  as  well  as  the 
Bedouins  and  better.  Such  a  reputation  have  they  gained  for  fear- 
lessness that  recently  an  advertisement  appeared  in  one  of  the 
local  Palestinian  papers  for  a  Jewish  Shomer  to  act  as  watchman 
over  the  property  of  an  Arab. 

The  Bedouins  have  learned  that  the  new  generation  of  Jews 
reared  in  Palestine  are  not  to  be  classed  as  their  physical  inferiors. 
As  they  grow  to  fear  and  respect  the  Shomerim,  their  raids  on  the 
property  of  the  colonists  become  less  and  less  frequent. 

EDUCATIONAL  INSTITUTIONS. 

What  of  educational  activity  in  the  colonies?  Is  the  school 
being  forgotten  in  the  attempt  to  establish  the  colonies  and  to  raise 
a  strong,  healthy  generation  of  Jews?  This  is  an  evil  often  found 
among  agricultural  peoples.  But  in  Palestine,  in  the  Jewish  colonies, 
this  evil  does  not  exist. 

Education  has  always  occupied  the  foremost  position  in  Jewish 
life,  and  in  the  Jewish  land,  the  school  is  naturally  given  foremost 
consideration.  No  colony  is  considered  too  small  to  have  an  ele- 
mentary school.  The  larger  ones  have  in  addition  kindergartens, 
higher  schools  for  boys  and  girls,  manual  training  schools  and  agri- 
cultural schools. 

The  colony  Tel  Aviv,  situated  on  the  outskirts  of  the  city  of 
Jaffa,  boasts  of  the  Herzl  Gymnasium,  a  high  school  which  is  con- 
sidered the  equal  of  European  institutions  in  scholarship  standards, 
and  which  prepares  students  for  any  university.  Its  students  come 
from  almost  all  countries  of  the  world,  particularly  from  those  of 
Eastern  Europe,  where  only  a  restricted  number  of  Jews  are  per- 
mitted to  enter  the  higher  schools. 

A  Teachers'  Seminary  has  been  established,  and  just  before 
the  outbreak  of  the  war,  the  plans  for  the  founding  of  a  Jewish 
University  in  Jerusalem  were  completed. 

From  the  kindergarten  through  to  the  gymnasium,'  the  language 
of  instruction  in  all  the  "national"  schools,  the  schools  founded  by 
the  Zionists,  is  Hebrew.  With  the  rebirth  of  Jewish  national  life 

59 


and  the  regeneration  of  the  Jewish  national  soil,  has  naturally  come 
a  complete  revival  of  Hebrew,  the  Jewish  national  language.  In 
the  colonies,  Hebrew  has  become  the  language  of  the  market  place 
and  of  the  child  at  play.  It  has  gradually  replaced  both  Yiddish 
and  Ladino,  the  latter  being  a  dialect  used  by  the  Spanish-Sephardic 
Jews. 

The  pioneer  in  the  revival  of  Hebrew  is  Eliezer  ben  Yehudah. 
He  came  to  Palestine  from  Russia  determined  that  Hebrew  should 
become  a  living  tongue  among  the  colonists.  To  set  an  example,  he 
made  the  strange  announcement  that  the  woman  he  married  must 
speak  Hebrew.  Fortunately,  he  found  such  a  woman  and  was 
therefore  able  to  introduce  Hebrew  into  his  home. 

The  rebirth  of  this  ancient  national  language  of  the  Jews  has 
had  a  powerful  influence  in  strengthening  the  sense  of  unity  among 
the  colonists.  The  Russian  Jew,  the  German  Jew,  the  Arabian  Jew 
and  all  the  Jews  who  come  to  Palestine  are  rapidly  being  merged  in 
the  Jewish  Jew. 

The  schools  in  the  old  settlement,  that  is  in  cities  like  Jaffa, 
Jerusalem,  Haifa,  etc.,  are  of  a  different  character  from  those  in  the 
colonies.  Most  of  them  are  similar  to  the  Ghetto  institutions — old 
fashioned  Hederim  and  Talmud  Torahs  employing  obsolete  educa- 
tional methods,  conducting  classes  in  small  and  poorly  ventilated 
rooms  under  the  direction  of  teachers  not  particularly  well  fitted  for 
their  work. 

There  are  also  more  modern  schools  in  the  old  settlement, 
those  established  by  the  Alliance  Israelite  Universelle  and  the  Hilfs- 
verein  der  Deutschen  Juden.  These  are  model  institutions  from  an 
educational  standpoint  but  originally  they  were  more  French  and 
German  than  Jewish  in  character.  Both  of  these  organizations  have 
done  praiseworthy  work  in  educating  the  Jews  of  Palestine,  but  as 
the  education  thev  offered  was  along  French  and  German  and  not 
Jewish  lines,  and  fitted  the  student  for  European  and  not  Palestinian 
life,  it  resulted  not  seldom  in  the  most  promising  students  leaving 
Palestine  for  Western  Europe. 

Unique  among  the  educational  institutions  in  Palestine  is  the 
Bezalel  School  of  Arts  and  Crafts  in  the  city  of  Jerusalem.  To 
Bezalel  comes  the  Jewish  art  student  who  seeks  a  means  of  express- 
ing his  art  in  Jewish  form  and  his  Jewishness  in  art.  Instead  of 
trying  to  find  inspiration  for  his  work  in  adopted  lands,  among 
foreign  peoples  whose  inner  life  he  cannot  understand,  he  comes 
back  to  his  home-land,  to  his  own  people,  whose  life  is  the  very  soul 
of  himself. 

In  the  short  space  of  nine  years,  Bezalel,  under  the  direction  of 
Prof.  Schatz,  has  succeeded  in  creating  the  beginnings  of  a  Jewish 
art.  It  is  particularly  famous  for  the  finely  wrought  silver  filigree 
work  which  it  has  produced.  Many  of  these  filigree  articles  as  well 
as  rugs,  fancy  woodwork,  etc.,  have  been  brought  here  to  America 
for  display  and  sale.  We  have  seen  that  the  articles  made  at  Bezalel 

60 


are  not  only  distinctively  Jewish  in  character  but  genuinely  beautiful 
and  artistic. 

Besides  being  a  school  of  art,  Bezalel  has  become  a  valuable 
commercial  institution  of  Palestine  by  giving  employment  to  hun- 
dreds in  its  rug-weaving,  basket  making  and  filigree  work  shops. 

By  making  it  possible  for  the  inhabitants  of  Jerusalem  to  gain  a 
livelihood  in  a  dignified  way — through  the  work  of  their  own  hands — 
Bezalel  is  helping  to  undermine  the  evil  influence  of  the  Chalucka. 
It  is  developing  a  new  sense  of  independence  in  the  old  settlement. 

HADASSAH. 

An  account  of  the  developments  in  Palestine  would  be  incom- 
plete without  some  mention  of  the  work  of  Hadassah,  the  Women's 
Zionist  Organization  of  America.  Imbued  with  the  same  ideal  which 
inspired  the  colonists,  it  has  undertaken  to  do  the  American  woman's 
share  in  the  regeneration  of  Palestine,  choosing  Jerusalem  for  its 
field  of  activity.  Here,  through  its  trained  American  nurses,  Ha- 
dassah provides  medical  attendance  for  the  sick  mothers  and  babies, 
takes  care  of  the  health  of  the  school  children  and  also  attempts  to 
educate  the  people  generally  to  more  sanitary  modes  of  living. 

When  after  the  declaration  of  war,  the  Jewish  non-citizens  of 
Palestine  were  exiled  to  Alexandria,  Egypt,  Hadassah  sent  its  head 
nurse  there  to  resume  the  work  she  had  been  doing  in  Jerusalem. 


While  this  account  of  our  institutions  in  Palestine  is  being 
written,  the  war  is  still  raging.  The  colonies  created  out  of  the  life- 
blood  of  the  Jewish  People,  at  the  expense  of  the  most  heroic  strug- 
gles and  sacrifices,  are  now  going  through  a  test  of  fire. 

With  its  industries  destroyed,  its  youth  drafted  in  opposing 
armies,  crops  rotting,  with  suffering  and  privation  rampant  in  the 
land,  young  Palestine  still  hopes  and  still  works.  Its  industries  and 
wealth  may  be  destroyed  through  this  cruel  war,  but  its  spirit — the 
spirit  of  the  Jewish  People  which  made  the  establishment  of  the 
colonies  possible — that  spirit  is  indestructible. 

After  this  war,  our  colonists  will  resume  their  task  with  in- 
creased determination  and  energy.  They  will  rebuild  all  that  has 
been  destroyed  and  continue  to  build  until  the  destiny  of  the  Jewish 
People  shall  have  been  achieved. 


61 


NO,  YOU  DO  NOT  KNOW  THE  LAND 

BY  ITTAMAR  BEN-AVI  OF  JERUSALEM 

"Every  place  whereon  the  soles  of  your  feet  shall  tread 
shall  be  yours:  from  the  wilderness  and  Lebanon,  from  the 
river,  the  river  Euphrates,  even  unto  the  uttermost  sea  shall 
your  coast  be." 

(Deut.  xi.  24) 

Some  time  ago,  I  was  sitting  in  the  home  of  one  of  the  prom- 
inent New-  York  Jews.  Father  and  Mother  were  not  at  home; 
they  were  travelling,  now  for  the  fifth  time,  in  Northern  Alaska. 
I  was  being  entertained  by  the  pleasant  chatter  of  the  elder 
daughter,  her  thirteen  year  old  brother  and  her  ten  year  old 
sister.  They  spoke  to  me  of  America:  of  its  giant  buildings  in 
its  giant  cities;  of  ball-games;  of  May  parties  and  June-walks. 
We  were  on  the  eleventh  story.  Through  the  spacious  windows 
the  golden  sunbeams  sifted  in,  made  the  motes  to  dance  in  the 
Spring  radiance,  and  played  on  the  reddish-blond  locks  of  the 
little  girl.  Before  us,  into  the  far  distance,  stretched  the  pano- 
rama of  the  vast  City  with  its  myriad  gleaming  window-panes.  .  . 

Suddenly  the  little  boy  fixed  his  blue  eyes  on  my  astonished 


—  "Where  do  you  come  from  ?" 
"From  Jerusalem,"  I  answered  eagerly. 

—  "From  Jerusalem?!"  exclaimed  the  boy,  his  eyes  flashing. 
"From  Jerusalem?    Where  is  this  Jerusalem?    In  Africa?" 

A  smile  played  about  my  lips;  but  before  I  had  time  to 
answer  him,  the  little  girl,  shaking  her  golden  crown,  snapped  at 
her  unfortunate  brother: 

—  "You  silly,"  —  she  called  out  in  a  natural  schoolmarm's 
manner  —  "do  you  not  know  that  Jerusalem  is  in  Persia?"   And 
then,  turning  to  me  :  "Isn't  that  so  ?" 

With  supreme  effort  I  choked  my  laughter  back  into  my 
throat,  and  patiently  I  explained  to  my  young  co-religionists  that 
this  Jerusalem  of  which  they  had  heard  is  somewhat  west  of 
Persia  and  rather  east  of  Africa.  I  told  them  that  Jerusalem  is 
situated  on  the  mountains  in  one  of  the  most  beautiful  countries 
of  the  whole  world,  a  country  whose  official  name  today  is 
Turkey,  but  which  will  soon  be  freely  designated  by  its  ancient 
name  :  "Eretz-Yisrael,"  the  Land  of  the  Jews. 

I  took  my  leave  ;  and,  as  the  pale  sun  sank  and  twilight  fell, 
I  left  them  richer  by  a  thought  they  had  never  heard  nor  dreamt 
of  before  ---- 

*        *        * 

Of  course,  I  know  full  well  that  there  is  no  comparison 
whatsoever  between  those  little  friends  of  mine  and  yourselves. 
I  am  aware,  moreover,  that  I  should  be  making  a  great  mistake 

62 


if  I  indiscriminately  charged  the  Jewish  youth  of  this  great  land 
with  such  total  ignorance  of  things  Jewish.  I  am  fully  acquainted 
with  the  fact  that  there  are  thousands  of  true  Jews  left  even 
among  our  boys  and  girls.  They  love  our  past,  cherish  our  coun- 
try, and  long  for  the  fulfilment  of  our  national  hopes.  This  spirit 
of  faithfulness  I  find  expressed  most  emphatically  in  "Young 
Judaea."  Yet  I  believe  that  the  little  anecdote  is  a  graphic  and 
vivid  indication  of  the  general  spiritual  condition  of  the  majority 
of  our  Jewish-American  youth.  Whenever  I  pass  along  the 
streets  of  New-York, — say,  on  Fifth  Avenue,  at  about  five  o'clock 
in  the  afternoon,  and  look  at  the  scores  of  boys  and  girls  walking 
there,  and  overhear  their  talks  and  their  jokes,  I,  the  Jerusalemite, 
cannot  shake  off  the  sad  feelings  that  oppress  my  heart.  Are 
these  then  my  brothers,  these  boisterous  and  frivolous  things, 
whose  greatest  ambition  is  to  imitate  the  tricks  of  Charlie 
Chaplin?  Are  these  my  sisters,  these  overdressed  dolls,  brimful 
of  life  and  laughter,  whose  only  purpose  seems  to  be  dancing, 
whose  only  ideal  seems  to  be  the  moving-picture,  and  whose  only 
thought  seems  to  be  ice-cream? 

There  are  a  million  and  a  half  Jews  in  this  City  of  New  York ; 
you  meet  them  at  every  step ;  and  for  the  most  part,  they  are  the 
only  ones  heard  and  seen.  But  in  this  great  sea  of  Jewish  life,  in 
these  turbulent  waves,  how  much  is  there  of  genuine  Jewishness  ? 
How  many  of  these  Jews  give  free  expression  to  their  Jewish  con- 
sciousness ?  How  many  of  them  are  proud  banner-bearers  of  our 
national  ideals  ?  How  many  of  them  give  a  thought  to  the  glories 
of  the  past,  and  to  the  possibilities  of  the  future  ?  How  many  of 
them  are  willing  to  stop,  for  ever  so  short  a  while,  in  the  midst  of 
their  business  and  pleasures,  in  order  to  listen  to  the  call  of 
Jerusalem  Restored?  And  how  many,  pray,  would  sacrifice  an 
hour  a  week  to  study  Hebrew,  to  read  the  Jewish  Bible,  to  help 
along  the  marvelous  work  of  reconstruction  which  we  are  under- 
taking there,  yonder,  far-away,  in  the  enchanted  East  of  Sinai, 

Moriah,  Lebanon,  Euphrates,  Moab  and  the  silent  Desert? 

*        *        * 

But  what  can  I  expect  of  these  thousands  that  are  plunged 
into  the  abyss  of  New  York,  and  are  slowly  being  consumed  by 
its  tense  atmosphere,  surcharged  with  electricity,  if  even  those 
who  have  stayed  in  the  fold,  and  those  too  who  have  returned  of 
late  years,  are  still  far  from  possessing  a  comprehensive  knowl- 
edge concerning  all  that  touches  upon  our  country  and  its  peculiar 
life?  How  many  are  there,  even  among  the  members  of  Young 
Judaea,  with  whom  the  very  conception  of  Eretz-Yisrael  is  still 
wrapt  in  a  vague  mist?  How  many  young  Zionists  are  there  who 
have  plied  me  with  questions  that  I  should  be  ashamed  to  repeat 
and  therefore  refrain  from  exposing?  They  are  firm,  indeed,  in 
their  conviction,  sublime  in  their  national  aspirations,  mighty  in 
the  spirit  of  self-sacrifice.  But  they  are  still  groping  in  the  dark 
to  find  the  road  that  leads  to  our  land.  What  wonder  that  frozen 
Alaska  occupies  a  more  distinct  place  in  their  minds  than  our 
snowy  mountains  and  our  fiery  desert? 

63 


.  /.^ ,  - !?  " 


No,  brothers  and  sisters,  no !  You  do  not  know  the  Land . . . 

You  do  not  know  her  because  even  your  big  brothers  and 
sisters  do  not  know  her  precisely ;  you  do  not  know  her  because 
even  your  parents  have  failed  to  impress  upon  you  all  her  pristine 
beauty,  as  their  parents  had  impressed  it  upon  them;  because 
even  your  teachers  have  forgotten  her,  almost  all  of  them.  They 
have  stripped  her  of  her  spring  charm,  they  have  deprived  her  of 
her  rich  Hebraic  coloring;  thus  they  have  turned  her  into  the 
rattling  skeleton  of  a  dead  past,  having  no  future,  showing  naught 
but  a  mere  chilling  shadow  of  her  former  self. 

And  because  you  do  not  know  the  Land,  you  often  believe  in 
things  that  would  make  the  hair  stand  on  end  on  the  heads  of 
modern  Jerusalemites.  You  believe  that  she  is  small  and  poor, 
sun-scorched  and  dust-laden;  that  she  is  barren,  over-populated, 
a  hot-bed  of  countless  diseases,  a  haunt  of  wild  beasts,  mosqui- 
toes, locusts  and  scorpions;  that  the  majority  of  her  population 
consists  of  uncouth  Arabians  and  repellent  barbarians;  that  the 
few  Jews  living  there  are  feeble,  old,  looking  only  to  die  there, 
intent  upon  stretching  out  their  hands  for  alms,  and  indifferent 
to  the  contempt  and  hatred  they  are  bound  to  arouse.  I  myself 
have  heard  one  of  the  more  enlightened  Zionist  ladies  exclaim: 
"How  can  I  go  to  miserable  Palestine  of  today,  while  the  cholera 
is  chronic  there,  while  lepers  have  the  freedom  of  the  streets, 
while  the  beggars  are  there  to  snatch  the  pennies  out  of  your 
hand,  while  the  heat  is  killing  in  summer  and  the  tropical  rains 
cause  sickness  in  winter — and  so  long  as  there  is  not  even  a 
picture-show  at  which  to  pass  the  evening?" 

And  this  ill-suppressed  feeling  of  apprehension  caused  by  the 
riddle  of  an  imaginary  Eretz-Yisrael  is  deeply  imbedded  in  the 
hearts  of  many,  many  Zionists,  both  great  and  small,  not  only  in 
New  York,  but  everywhere  where  Jews  live. 

It  is  imbedded  in  the  hearts,  you  will  admit,  because  there  are 
very  few  among  us  who  really  know  the  land. 

*        *        * 

For  example,  do  you  know  that  the  good  and  beloved  land, 
in  whose  name  I,  the  Jerusalemite,  speak  to  you,  is  not  quite  so 
small  and  insignificant  as  is  supposed,  but,  on  the  contrary,  is 
vast  and  far-spreading? 

Didn't  I  laugh  when  a  young  American  Jew,  an  ardent 
Zionist,  stepped  up  to  me  one  day,  and,  coming  fresh  from  his 
courses  in  universal  geography,  asked  me  naively  if  Monaco, 
San-Marino  and  Andora  were  smaller  or  a  trifle  larger  than  my 
country?  And  didn't  I  laugh  still  louder  when,  after  having  set 
him  right,  he,  in  his  overflowing  enthusiasm,  generously  con- 
ceded to  Palestine  an  area  as  large  as  that  of  Rhode-Island? 
Many  of  you,  I'll  be  bound,  thought  very  nearly  as  he  did,  and  I 
suppose  many  of  you  are  inclined  to  be  just  about  as  generous  as 
he  was. 

However,  what  will  you  say,  and  will  you  not  be  astonished, 
if  I  confess  to  you  that  I  laugh  at  all  those — and  they  are  the 

66 


large  majority  among  us — who  compare  the  area  of  our  land  to 
the  size  of  the  biggish  island  of  Sicily,  or  to  the  dimensions  of 
teeming  Belgium,  Holland,  Denmark,  or  even  Switzerland?  With 
these  notions,  is  there  any  wonder  that  so  many  arise  in  our  midst 
expressing  their  misgivings  as  to  the  future  of  Israel,  in  view  of 
the  small  territory  of  Palestine,  whose  soil  in  most  sections  has 
already  found  masters  that  are  hard  and  stubborn,  unwilling  to 
yield  her  to  us  spontaneously? 

But  no.  Neither  San-Marino,,  nor  Andora,  nor  yet  any  of 
the  above-mentioned  countries,  can  give  a  fair  idea  of  our  land, 
for  hers  is  a  spacious  territory,  with  far-flung  boundaries,  which 
might  swallow  up  all  of  them  together,  and  even  twice  as  much 
and  more.  Glance  at  the  map  and  study  it  for  a  spell,  and  then 
you  will  get  to  know  that  the  stretch  of  land  which  you  erro- 
neously compared  at  the  most  with  Belgium,  but  which  corre- 
sponds only  to  the  circumscribed  space  enclosed  within  the 
coast  and  the  dotted  line,  is  but  a  modest  section  of  the  real 
Palestine;  for,  in  very  truth,  neither  Dan  in  the  North,  nor 
Beer-Sheba  in  the  South ;  neither  Jordan  in  the  East  nor 
Canaan  and  Pelesheth  in  the  West,  form  the  definite  frontiers 
of  our  land.  The  mighty  Euphrates,  the  Great  Desert 
spreading  towards  the  far  East,  the  Red  Sea  with  its  two  warm 
bays,  the  marvelous  Mediterranean,  Lebanon  and  Hermon  with 
their  eternal  snows — these,  and  only  these,  are  the  confines  of 
Greater-Palestine,  our  own  Palestine,  one  and  indivisible.  Head- 
ing this  article,  I  of  set  purpose  chose  as  motto  the  burning  words 
of  the  greatest  leader  in  our  national  history.  Read  these  words 
over  again,  and  you  will  learn  that  they  contain  the  political  will 
of  Moses  addressed  to  our  people,  in  full  agreement  with  the  lofty 
dream  of  our  ancestor  Abraham.  This  will,  whose  validity  nothing 
can  shake,  became  afterwards  a  guiding  line  for  Joshua  the 
Conqueror,  who  gave  it  fresh  emphasis  in  a  new  testament  to 
posterity.  David,  in  his  holy  zeal  for  his  people,  fulfilled  the 
terms  of  this  testament,  sealing  it  in  the  blood  of  the  Hebrews. 
Joab,  the  generalissimo,  made  his  horses  to  drink  from  the  tur- 
bulent Euphrates,  and  Solomon,  with  the  insight  of  genius,  built 
Tadmor  in  the  North,  lying  south  of  the  river,  and  'Etzyon-Gever 
in  the  South,  at  the  Bay  of  Elath,  whence  his  ships  set  sail  for 
India  and  Ophir. 

And  this  wide,  wide  land,  which  on  foot  could  not  be  covered 
in  less  than  forty  days  eastward,  and  thirty  days  southward; 
which  a  train  would  take  two  days  to  traverse,  has  nearly  a 
million  square  kilometers  in  extent,  something  like  one  and  a  half 
times  the  size  of  Germany,  or  equal  to  about  Spain  and  France 
put  together,  certainly  larger  than  both  Italy  and  England.  And 
since  I  am  addressing  you,  my  American  friends,  you  may  grasp 
my  meaning  more  clearly,  if  I  say  to  you  that  this  Greater 
Palestine  is  about  one-tenth  of  the  whole  of  the  United  States  of 
North  America. . . . 

Who  of  you,  Young-Judaeans,  even  if  your  demands  be  most 
exacting,  would  not  be  content  with  such  a  land? 

67 


To  be  sure,  I  know  there  are  those  who  would  object :  "What 
is  the  good  of  this  enormous  area,  if  most  of  it  is  desert  land  ? 

Tell  them :  "There  are  no  such  things  as  deserts  nowadays !" 
Did  not  France,  in  the  days  of  Voltaire,  declare  that  Canada  was 
nothing  but  a  few  square  miles  of  ice?  Did  not  Russia  herself 
imagine  that  Alaska  was  only  a  dark  realm  of  frozen  death  ?  And 
you  yourselves  know  how  bitterly  the  United  States  were 
opposed  to  the  acquisition  of  the  immense  State  of  Louisiana,  on 
the  fancied  ground  of  its  being  an  unredeemable  desert.  Yet 
today  see  and  behold :  Canada  has  a  glowing  future ;  Russia  de- 
plores the  loss  of  Alaska;  and  Louisiana  is  one  of  the  richest 
possessions  of  Uncle  Sam. 

There  are  no  such  things  as  deserts  nowadays.  France  has 
redeemed  the  Sahara  and  turned  it  into  a  province  pregnant  with 
untold  possibilities;  England  has  redeemed  the  Sudan,  covering 
it  with  cotton  plantations ;  Russia  has  redeemed  the  deserts  of 
Bokhara,  which  are  now  flowing  with  milk  and  honey;  while 
Italy  did  not  despise  the  wildernesses  of  Tripoli  and  Cyrenaica, 
and  already  the  sandy  wastes  are  beginning  to  adorn  themselves 
with  luscious  grass. 

But  granted  that  the  calumnies  of  our  foes  and  the  imagin- 
ings of  some  of  our  friends  are  true,  can  we,  the  beggar-nation  of 
the  world,  we  who  are  poorer  than  rocky  Andora,  Lilliputian 
San-Marino  and  Negro  Liberia,  can  we  afford  to  refuse  even  a 
desert,  if  we  but  had  the  chance  to  take  it,  if  they  but  let  us  have 
it? 

In  ancient  times,  you  will  remember,  the  desert  served  us 
well.  It  was  a  wall  and  a  fortress  against  repeated  invasions.  It 
can,  it  will,  serve  us  just  as  well  in  times  to  come.  By  all  means, 

let  it  be  a  desert,  so  long  as  it  is  ours — our  veriest  own 

*        *        * 

Probably  you  do  not  know  that  even  the  little  we  found  at 
the  beginning  of  our  colonizing  efforts  was  not  much  more  than 
a  desert.  Sand-hills  stretched  from  the  coast  and  shifted  as 
far  as  "En-Hakkore,"  where  Samson  of  old  slew  thousands  of 

Philistines  with  the  jaw-bone  of  an  ass.  The  sad  spirit  of  solitude 
and  desolation  hovered  over  the  awesome  domain  from  "En-Hak- 
kore" onward.  Noisome  weeds,  briars  and  thistles,  parched  clods 
and  burning  sun-darts,  imparted  to  the  place  a  deadly  aspect. 
Jackals  and  foxes,  serpents  and  scorpions,  ravens  and  owls,  were 
the  only  inhabitants  of  the  entire  region,  and  but  seldom  were  a 
few  solitary  Bedouins  or  banditti  seen  to  pass  through.  Then 
our  pioneers  came,  thirty-five  years  ago,  and  redeemed  this  very 
"desert,"  for  fertile  land  was  denied  them  by  the  natives ;  and  they 
removed  the  stones  and  cleared  the  thorny  growth,  and  hedged 
it  about  with  cactus  and  dug  at  its  centre  a  deep  well. 

How  beautiful  and  idyllic  is  the  tale  of  this  well !  How  many 
legends  were  woven  around  it,  how  many  songs  were  composed 
concerning  it !  Until  this  day,  listening  to  the  babbling  sound  of 

68 


its  waters,  one  fancies  he  hears  the  story  of  the  drought  and  thirst 
which  tormented  the  patient  diggers  during  the  first  month.  Inch 
by  inch  the  spade  penetrated  into  the  ground — but  no  water. 
Water  had  to  be  hauled  on  horseback  from  outlying  hostile  vil- 
lages or  far-off  Jaffa,  on  rides  lasting  several  hours ;  no  more  than 
enough  to  quench  the  thirst;  none  at  all  for  washing  purposes, 
for  the  burning  sand  was  their  only  cosmetic.  At  length,  on  a 
hot  summer-day,  when  the  sunrays  blended  into  the  hazy  gloam- 
ing the  point  of  the  pick  slipped  into  something  soft:  Water! 
Murky  water,  and  not  very  sweet,  but  water  nevertheless !  The 
ancient  Hellenes,  on  seeing  the  sea  from  afar  off,  when  returning 
from  their  Persian  adventures,  did  not  emit  a  more  jubilant  shout 
than  did  the  creators  of  Rishon-Leziyon. 

Yes,  Rishon-Leziyon.  Is  it  not  a  beautiful  name?  Does  it 
not  tell  the  whole  tale?  Were  you  to  see  it  to-day,  this  first  and 
foremost  of  our  colonies,  on  her  sand-mound,  submerged  in  the 
ocean  of  her  trees,  gleaming  with  the  abundance  of  her  fruit, 
fertile  and  florescent,  her  happy  smile  reflected  in  her  white  walls 
and  reddish  roofs,  humming  with  the  noise  of  her  many  farmers, 
bleating  flocks  and  frolicking  children,  drunk  and  intoxicated  with 
the  light  that  floods  her,  as  well  as  with  the  boundless  freedom 
of  her  overflowing  Hebrew  spirit, — were  you  to  see  all  this, 
you  would  not  believe  that  this  is  a  new  creation  of  that  spirit, 
but  a  pleasing  memento  of  our  long-flown  past,  when  heavy 
clustering  grapes,  milk  and  honey,  fig  and  olive  trees,  dates  and 
pomegranates,  cheered  the  heart  and  gladdened  the  eye  of  a 
Deborah  and  Barak,  an  Isaiah  and  Ahaz,  a  Hasmonean  or 

Maccabean 

*        *        * 

And  at  every  step  in  this  land,  wherever  our  foot  treads, 
wherever  our  influence  reaches,  we  have  changed  this  "desert" 
into  a  paradise.  The  swamps  by  the  Yarkon  stream,  which  used 
to  be  breeding-places  of  yellow-fever,  we  have  changed  into  a 
dense  forest,  into  the  largest  and  richest  of  our  present-day 
colonies,  namely  Petah-Tikvah,  with  a  population  of  6000  souls, 
and  an  aggregate  value  of  6,000,000  dollars.  Out  of  the  swamps 
of  the  Sharon  and  her  accursed  sands  we  have  created  Hederah, 
surrounded  with  woods,  reaching  down  to  the  coast,  the  chief 
point  of  interest  in  which  is  the  large  cemetery  containing  the 
white  tombs  of  the  martyrs  of  the  new  settlement;  Zichron- 
Ya'akov  with  her  blooming  gardens ;  Atlith  the  fair-one,  with  the 
ruins  of  her  ancient  port  and  her  modern  experiment-stations. 
Among  the  pointed  rocks  of  Upper  Galilee  we  have  constructed 
Metullah  characterized  by  her  Swiss  beauty  of  landscape,  whence 
may  be  plainly  seen  the  waves  of  the  Mediterranean,  the  eddies  of 
the  Litani  river,  the  blue  thread  of  the  Jordan,  the  mirror  of  the 
Genesareth  lake,  and  the  round  summit  of  Mount  Tabor.  On  the 
Galilean  highlands,  we  have  also  established  Rosh-Pinah,  whose 
mulberry  trees  feed  tens  of  thousands  of  silk-worms ;  and  in  the 
valley  of  Esdraelon  whose  soil  is  perhaps  the  most  fertile  in  the 

69 


whole  world,  we  have  erected  Merhabyah  with  her  undulating 
ocean  of  golden  corn.  Between  Jerusalem  and  Jaffa,  on  rocky 
hills,  Har-Tob  is  outlined  against  the  sky,  filling  the  air  with  the 
redolence  of  her  roses  and  the  fragrance  of  her  lilies.  And  'Ekron 
in  the  Shefelah  dazzles  our  eyes  with  the  color-riot  of  her  fruits, 
the  latter  belonging  to  all  countries  and  climes.  Even  in  the 
extreme  South,  towards  Idumea,  with  her  sun-parched  solitude, 
we  have  displayed  our  strength,  and  out  of  the  drought  we  have 
forced  fresh  sap,  a  deeper  green  and  colors  more  vivid  than  any- 
where else  in  the  land :  making  the  blighting  sun  there  a  blessing. 
Ruhama  is  the  Hebrew  name  of  this  new  Beer-Sheeba. 

Only  the  "Great  Desert,"  which  still  fills  us  with  apprehen- 
sion, we  have  not  touched  for  good  or  ill. 

*  *        * 

Thus,  little  by  little,  in  the  course  of  thirty-five  years  of 
struggle  and  sweat,  in  spite  of  haunting  despair  and  continuous 
dangers,  and  in  the  face  of  obstacles  and  hindrances  such  as 
could  not  be  foreseen,  the  land  became  garnished  with  beautiful 
settlements,  Hebrew  in  speech  and  spirit.  And  thus  we  see  to- 
day, lifted  above  her  hills  and  spreading  over  her  plains,  by  the 
side  of  her  blue  lakes  and  her  native  sea,  alongside  the  sweep  of 
her  rivers  and  the  song  of  her  wells,  between  the  debris  of  her 
past  and  the  dreams  of  her  future,  fifty-seven  Jewish  villages, 
fifty-seven  throbbing  centres  of  life,  which  grow  progressively 
from  year  to  year,  absorbing  their  neighbors  and  giving  rise  to 
ever  new  settlements.  And  thus  was  our  country  once  more  re- 
stored to  practically  her  former  state! 

*  *        * 

You  do  not  realize  what  wondrous  sentiment  seizes  me  and 
other  Palestinians  when  we  traverse  our  land  towards  the  four 
winds.  At  almost  every  step  we  pass  by  some  Hebrew  home, 
some  Hebrew  quarter,  some  Hebrew  settlement,  some  Hebrew 
village,  some  Hebrew  City.  At  times  our  feet  do  not  cease  touch- 
ing Hebrew  soil  for  hours  and  hours.  If  you  see  at  the  dim  hori- 
zon, by  the  side  of  the  road  leading  to  Jaffa,  two  straight  lines  of 
tall  eucalyptus  trees,  and  among  them  serene  edifices,  be  sure  it 
is  Mikveh-Yisrael,  the  centre  of  agricultural  education.  At  times, 
one  sees  in  a  broad  field  a  solitary  building,  half-empty,  sur- 
rounded by  tender  plants,  pointing  to  the  foundation  of  a  new 
colony.  And  at  times,  there  is  neither  building  nor  young  trees, 
only  fallow  ground,  and  six  or  seven  Yemenite  Jews,  with  their 
swarthy  laughing  countenances,  the  pistol  in  their  belts  and  the 
pick  in  their  hands,  watching  and  clearing  the  field,  which  is  a 
sign  that  the  farm  was  bought  but  the  day  before. 

You  travel  on  the  little  snail-like  train  from  Jaffa  to  Jerusa- 
lem, in  the  company  of  French,  English,  German  and  American 
tourists ;  you  all  peer  through  the  train-windows  at  the  land- 
scape ;  you  behold  the  Shefelah  with  her  golden  oranges,  the  foot 
of  the  blue-peaked  Judean  mountains ;  here  and  there  proud 
palms,  lifting  their  leafy  crowns  heavenwards  boldly,  like  fans; 

70 


groups  of  storks,  black-and-white,  flitting  to  and  fro  over  the 
fields  of  wheat  and  sesame.  Suddenly,  there  is  a  stir  of  sensation 
in  the  train:  there  is  whispering,  chattering,  querying  and  won- 
dering, and  the  local  Cicerones — Arabian  dragomans — answer 
and  explain : 

—"What's  that  over  there  on  the  left?" 

"A  Jewish  village,"  the-  dragoman  replies  to  his  Christian 
questioners,  "the  Hebrew  Ben-Shemen." 
— "And  over  there,  to  the  right  ?" 

— "A  Hebrew  village,"  the  dragoman  rejoins,  "old-new 
'Ekron." 

— "And  who  are  these  stalwart  men,  with  their  kerchiefs 
around  their  heads,  riding  on  horseback  at  a  swift  gallop?" 

— "Hebrew  'shomerim,'  who  race  from  colony  to  colony  to 
guard  the  Hebrew  farms  against  the  assaults  of  lusty  bedouins." 

Thus  it  goes  all  along  the  way.  Settlements  and  villages, 
farms  and  estates  all  in  Hebrew  hands ; — sometimes  surrounding 
completely  the  native  holdings.  Can  it  be  that  the  land  has  al- 
ready been  re-conquered  by  the  Hebrews  ?  Are  the  glorious  days 
of  Joshua  restored? 

When  the  train  stops  at  Har-Tob,  once  a  Christian  mission 
to  the  Jews  but  now  one  of  our  most  productive  colonies,  a  dark- 
complexioned  girl  is  apt  to  step  up  to  the  window.  Let  us  take 
a  look  at  her:  olive-skinned  and  with  features  enhanced  by 
oriental  expressiveness,  her  eyes  seem  to  recall  the  scintillating 
pools  of  light  which  Miriam  might  have  owned ;  her  wayward 
locks  seem  worthy  to  grace  the  Amazon  head  of  a  Deborah ;  her 
form  is  tall  and  slender  as  of  an  imperious  Judith ;  her  speech 
ripples  forth  with  the  bubbling  sweetness  of  a  Huldah ;  while 
her  smile  is  serene  in  its  wistful  pathos  as  that  of  the  daughter  of 
Jephthah  before  her  immolation.  In  her  hands  she  holds  a  bunch 
of  flowers,  which  she  lavishly  bestows  upon  any  Hebrew  traveller 
who  chances  to  ask  for  them:  blood-red  anemones;  golden 
daisies;  milk-white  lilies;  violets  and  roses,  the  pride  of  Har- 
Tob  whose  fragrance  intoxicates  the  senses.  Who  is  this  fair 
maiden? 

She  is  a  Har-tobite,  a  Sepharadi  girl,  scion  of  those  aristo- 
cratic Jewish  families  that  had  early  settled  here  and  embellished 
the  country-side  in  keeping  with  their  own  spirit  of  esthetic  re- 
finement. 

And  the  foreign  tourists  join  in  the  smile  with  which  all 
greet  her — it  is  a  smile  of  sympathetic  understanding:  the  times 
of  Joshua  are  upon  us  indeed. . . . 

*        *        * 

And  now  we  are  near  Jerusalem.  Jerusalem  the  Beautiful ; 
Jerusalem  the  Best-Beloved,  which  I  would  not  exchange  for  the 
richest  city  in  the  world,  so  much  do  I  love  her.  They  all, 
whether  new-comers  or  old  residents,  stand  up  as  if  spell-bound, 
and  a  mighty  yearning  gleams  in  their  eyes :  Jerusalem ! 

71 


One  fancies  that  even  the  train  approaches  the  Holy  City 
with  solemn  reverence ;  her  syrencall  is  a  shout  of  exultation  and 
proud  greeting,  for  here,  every  stir  in  the  radiant  atmosphere 
makes  itself  felt  as  the  mysterious  urge  of  all  that  is  sublime  and 
exalted. 

There,  there  she  is  before  your  astonished  gaze  as  she  looms 
up,  white  and  fresh  in  the  fading  softness  of  her  sinking  sun, 
above  her  ten  garden-embroidered  mountains.  There,  there  she 
is  with  her  towers  and  minarets,  with  her  wall  languishing  be- 
neath the  burden  of  her  past,  with  the  stone-slabs  of  her  square- 
buildings,  with  the  ancient  olives  crowning  her  horizons,  with  her 
skies  bluer  than  the  waves  of  the  sea;  and  with  her  calm:  that 
characteristic  calm  of  the  Jewish  Orient  brooding  all  over  her,  as 
she  lies  cool  in  the  temperate  breeze.  Such  is  she,  Jerusalem,  the 
much-desired  Yebus. 

There  are  cabs  waiting  at  the  station,  but  very  few  in 
number;  why  are  there  not  enough  cabs? 

— "Because  to-day  is  Friday,"  remarks  the  dragoman. 
And  while  the  cabs  roll  onward  in  the  thickly-curling  dust 
towards  the  city : 

"Why  are  most  of  the  shops  closed?  Is  it  the  custom  to 
close  them  at  five  o'clock?" 

— "No;  because  it  is  Friday,  and  most  shops  belong  to  the 
Jews." 

And  peace,  undisturbed  peace,  reigns  everywhere.  The 
streets  are  almost  empty — why  ? 

— "Because  the  Jews  are  gone  to  the  Synagogue  and  most  of 
the  inhabitants  are  Jews." 

Has  the  messianic  era  dawned  ?  No,  not  yet !  Nevertheless, 
the  city  is  already,  to  a  very  large  extent,  Hebrew  in  character. 
Everywhere,  Hebrew  signs ;  on  every  wall  and  gate,  posters  in 
Hebrew;  and  it  appears  almost  as  if  all  the  passers-by,  even 
Christians  and  Moslems,  were  at  this  hour  garbed  in  Sabbath- 
raiment,  as  if  their  very  faces  were  beaming  with  the  pervasive 
Sabbath-spirit.  The  night  is  past,  the  matchless  Jerusalem  night 
known  for  its  jet  skies,  jewelled  with  leaping  star-light  to  the  far 
edge  of  infinitude.  The  sun  has  arisen,  and  all  the  Jews  are 
hurrying  to  and  fro,  clothed  in  their  festive  garments,  according 
to  the  traditions  of  the  lands  they  hail  from ;  while  the  boys  and 
girls  swarming  through  the  streets  fill  the  air  with  their  tripping 
Hebrew  conversation. 

— "Are  these  too  Hebrews?" 

—"Yes." 

— "And  what  is  this  they  speak?" 

—"Hebrew." 

— "Is  that  so?  Is  it  possible  that  all  these  thousands  speak 
the  language  of  Jeremiah  and  Zedekiah,  Amos  and  Hillel?" 

72 


And  then — I  myself  heard  it — the  dragoman  sets  about  ex- 
plaining- to  these  surprised  foreigners  the  story  of  the  "Great 
War,"  antedating  the  European  war,  the  war  waged  by  the 
Hebrew  language  against  the  German  language  within  the 
schools  of  the  Hebrews : 

— "This  happened,"  thus  runs  his  tale,  "about  a  year,  or  a 
year  and  a  half,  ago.  One  fine  morning  the  voice  of  song  rang 
through  the  City,  waxing  in  intensity  every  moment.  Everyone 
rushed  to  the  windows,  to  the  doors.  We  looked  and  saw  an 
impressive  procession  of  boys  and  girls,  headed  by  drums  and 
trumpets,  with  white-and-blue  flags  in  their  hands,  fresh  flowers 
on  their  breasts  and  coat-lapels,  motley  ribbons  in  the  hair  and 
around  the  arms,  and  Hebrew  songs  in  their  mouths.  What  had 
come  to  pass?  All  these  children  went  on  a  strike  of  their  own 
accord,  leaving  the  "German"  schools  (the  latter  too  were  Jewish, 
but  the  language  of  instruction  was  German)  and  resolving  not 
to  return  to  their  lessons  until  the  German  language  was  banished 
and  the  Hebrew  tongue  put  in  its  place. 

Such  was  the  dragoman's  account  to  the  foreigners.  But  we 
who  were  with  these  children,  marching  in  their  procession  to- 
gether with  their  self-sacrificing  teachers,  the  latter  preferring  to 
lose  their  positions  and  salaries  in  order  to  lead  this  child-rebel- 
lion, we  shall  never  forget  the  solemn  hour  of  this  public  demon- 
stration, an  hour  pregnant  with  new  possibilities  and  prophetic 
of  wonderful  things  yet  to  be.  How  pleasing  in  those  days  the 
sight  of  this  new  generation  all  agog  with  schemes  that  criss- 
crossed each  other.  How  genuine  was  the  spontaneous  enthusi- 
asm; how  charming  even  the  irresponsible  follies  of  youth,  in 
which  there  mingled  a  dash  of  characteristic  audaciousness,  that 
wholesome  buoyant  "Chutzpah"  of  the  latter-day  Palestine  which 
we  have  created.  With  what  warm  indignation  did  the  pupils 
tear  to  pieces  their  German  text-books  and  copy-books;  with 
what  glee  did  they  scatter  the  bits  to  all  the  winds ;  and  with  what 
utter  devotion  did  they  vow  never  to  submit  to  the  sway  of  any 
foreign  tongue. 

We  were  but  a  small  people  then,  at  most  a  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  souls,  during  this  our  "Great  Hebrew  Revolution ;"  we 
were,  nevertheless,  a  people  in  the  full  meaning  of  the  term,  a 
people  that,  once  again  after  the  desolation  of  the  past,  empha- 
sized its  own  national  existence,  not  in  the  Diaspora  but  in  its 
own  land,  not  as  an  undifferentiated  aggregate  of  men  and 
women,  but  as  Hebrews,  cherishing  first  and  foremost  their  own 
individuality : 

"Ho,  ho!  Let  us  sing! 

Let  our  gladness  ring! 

This  is  a  day  of  light — 

To-day  we  won  our  fight 

Against  the  foe! 

Let  us  celebrate  in  joyous  song 

Our  people  and  our  holy  tongue — 

Three  cheers!  Ho,  ho!" 

73 


This  was  the  song  composed  and  sung  by  our  young  people 
after  their  victory.  This  is  the  ringing  echo  of  Awakened  Zion ! 

*         *         * 

You  cannot  form  a  correct  idea  of  the  great  pleasure  which 
Palestinians,  both  great  and  small,  derive  from  sitting  on  their 
door-steps,  near  their  vine  or  olive-tree,  while  the  panorama  of 
their  ancient  land,  replete  with  suggestions  of  patriarchal  times, 
stretches  before  them  in  all  its  variegated  richness.  You  cannot 
imagine  what  pleasure  it  is  for  these  modern  Hebrews  to  walk 
along  the  way  and  think:  "here  Judas  Maccabeus  passed  by  of 
old ;  there  Deborah  defeated  Sisera  her  foe ;  here  fell  prostrate 
the  Greek  Nikanor;  and  yonder  stood  Bar-Cochba  till  he 
breathed  his  last." 

Neither  can  you  know  how  moved  the  Palestinian  heart  is 
at  the  sight  of  those  hills  and  valleys  and  flowing  rivers,  whose 
every  clod,  whose  every  drop,  is  epic  of  the  wondrous  past  of  our 
people.  Upon  Mount  Olive,  Isaiah  spoke,  and  there  his  voice 
still  seems  to  ring  forth  in  clear  accents.  In  the  "Hatzar-Ham- 
mattarah,"  the  court  of  prison  situated  beyond  the  wall  of  Zion, 
Jeremiah  raised  his  lament,  and  his  weeping  voice  seems  to  wail 
through  the  ages.  Proud  Nebo  looms  afar  on  the  blue  ridge  of 
the  Moabite  mountains;  and  it  is  not  difficult  to  imagine  that 
Moses  is  still  standing  there,  fastening  upo'n  us  his  prophetic  gaze. 
And  if  your  fancy  casts  its  subtle  net  into  the  rippling  waves  of 
the  Jordan,  it  may  haul  forth  from  its  depths  the  ghosts  of 
Joshua  and  Jericho. 

Or  do  you  think  you  can  have  an  adequate  impression  of  the 
"Kothel  ha-Ma'aravi,"  the  Weeping  Wall,  this  unique  and  signi- 
ficant national  relic,  the  symbol  of  our  former  power  and  present 
endurance,  with  its  gigantic  slabs  of  hewn  stones,  time-worn  and 
bearing  the  marks  of  myriads  of  clinging  hands?  Imagine  one  of 
the  New-Hebrews  standing  at  the  foot  of  this  sacred  wall ;  what 
must  his  thoughts  be !  On  its  bold  crest  the  heroic  soldiers  of  Ben- 
Gorion  and  Johanan  of  Gush-Halav  poured  seething  oil  upon  the 
panic-stricken  Romans,  and  at  its  base  the  present-day  comba- 
tants, descendants  of  those  olden  fighters,  pour  out  their  scalding 
tears  while  vowing  with  iron  determination  to  work  for  a  glorious 
future. 

Tell  me,  you  Young-Judaeans,  in  what  nook  or  corner  of  this 
wide,  wide  world  will  you  ever  come  upon  monuments  that  shall 
speak  to  your  hearts  as  those  numerous  Palestinian  monuments 
might,  which  tell  the  tale  of  our  past?  Where  else  will  you  find 
a  "Yad-Abshalom,"  reminder  of  Absalom's  uprising  against  his 
old  father,  which  displays  the  peculiar  charm  of  its  slanting  form 
in  the  Valley  of  Jehoshaphat?  Where  else  will  your  hands  touch  the 
tombs  of  Hebrew  kings,  of  prophets  and  scribes?  Where  else  will 
your  eyes  alight  upon  mementoes  of  the  dim  beginnings  of  our 
nation's  life,  such  as  were  found  in  the  newly-discovered  ruins  of 
cliff-crowning  Yebus,  thanks  to  the  generosity  of  our  maecenas 
Rothschild  who  subventioned  the  Jewish  explorer  Captain  Weil  ? 

74 


And  where  will  your  memory  be  stirred  more  mightily,  and  where 
will  your  imagination  take  a  bolder  flight,  than  by  the  breakers  of 
the  Sea  of  Jaffa,  that  dash  themselves  with  foaming  fury  against 
the  forbidding  rocks,  which  our  rafts  and  merchantmen  used  to 
brave,  sailing  as  far  as  Tyre  and  Sidon,  and  even  further  to  Tar- 
shish  of  West-most  Sepharad  ? 

*  *        * 

And  what  tale  will  even  the  Present  recite  to  you !  Populous 
Tel-Aviv,  for  instance,  with  its  graceful  villas,  with  its  water- 
tower  discernible  from  afar  off,  with  its  white-walled  College  re- 
sembling a  battlemented  fortress,  with  its  asphalted  Herzl  Street 
always  thronged  with  gay  crowds,  with  its  children  of  both  sexes 
indulging  in  merry  sports,  and  its  tiny  park  lined  by  young  palms 
and  sycamores  overlooking  the  azure  sea.  And  to  complete  the 
picture,  there  are  the  posters  in  large  Hebrew  letters,  the  an- 
nouncements of  the  moving-picture  shows  for  the  evening,  the 
promised  reels  freshly  arrived  from  Paris,  and  men  and  women 
feverishly  catching  up  the  new  editions  of  the  Hebrew  dailies.  Is 
this  not  a  Nice,  but  a  Nice  transplanted  in  Hebrew  soil? 

Still  more  vivid  will  be  the  tale  of  any  Jewish  colony,  with  the 
alarm-bell  on  its  vantage-point,  with  its  lumbering  mail-coach 
from  the  near-by  city,  with  its  farmers  happy  in  the  lassitude  of 
the  evening,  with  its  pale  moon  smiling  ironically  through  space 
and  pouring  out  its  fluorescent  radiance  upon  the  sleeping  land- 
scape far  and  wide. 

And  if  this  is  insufficient,  there  is  the  mute  and  eloquent 
testimony  of  this  Jewish  maiden,  blonde-haired  and  blue-eyed, 
daughter  of  the  Galuth  bearing  still  all  its  ear-marks,  and  yet 
already  different.  There  she  sits  in  her  little  hut  in  the  vineyard, 
built  of  thatch,  her  needle-work  in  her  lap,  her  watch-dog  who 
answers  to  the  name  of  "Goliath"  by  her  side ;  while  a  few  yards 
away  laborers  of  both  sexes,  clad  in  light  Arabian  garments,  are 
gathering  the  heavy  clusters  of  grapes,  which  they  pack  into 
hundreds  of  baskets,  singing  all  the  while  spirited  Oriental  songs, 
braced  by  the  clear  air  that  seems  as  if  steeped  in  future  hope. 
The  very  sunbeams  pour  into  them  new  life,  the  wholesome  nat- 
ural life  of  free  men  living  on  their  own  soil. 

Behold,  a  small  people  bidding  fair  to  become  once  again  a 

great  people. 

*  *        * 

Up  then,  Young-Judaeans,  go  forth  and  tell  in  clarion  notes 
the  glad  tidings:  "Eretz-Yisrael  IS!" 

Go  forth,  and  in  the  name  of  the  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
Hebrews  of  Palestine,  lay  bare  before  your  elders,  teachers  and 
parents,  this  new-America — namely,  this  Greater-Eretz-Yisrael, 
so  fair,  so  vast,  so  rich,  so  replete  with  promise. 

Tell  them  that  never  did  the  rank  and  file  of  the  people  forget 
this  land ;  that  there  was  no  period,  even  after  the  destruction  of 
the  Temple,  but  there  remained  a  few  Jews  in  the  land;  that 
Peki'in  in  Galilee  and  Shechem  in  Ephraim  still  harbor  a  fine  and 

75 


proud  remnant  of  Ancient  Hebrews;  that  the  Yemenite  Jews, 
who  are  the  far  descendants  of  the  Ten  Tribes  exiled  in  the  time 
of  Ashur,  never  departed  from  our  enchanted  East,  preserving  in 
Yemen,  forty-days  journey  southward,  the  cherished  traditions 
of  old. 

Tell  them,  that  the  Lebanon  stores  iron  and  coal,  that  the 
Sinaitic  peninsula  is  full  of  copper  and  lead,  that  the  Plain  of 
Jordan  and  the  sun-scorched  Vale  leading  to  the  Red-Sea  yield 
mineral  oil;  that  the  Dead  Sea  is  alive  with  sulphur,  mercury, 
asphalt,  bitumen  and  phosphorus. 

Tell  them  that  the  great  Euphrates  rolls  with  its  waters  fine 
gold-dust;  that  basalt  and  granite  are  scattered  all  over  the 
desert ;  that  there  is  even  marble  to  be  found  here  and  there,  and 
many  other  minerals  that  have  not  yet  been  brought  to  light. 

There  is  no  country  on  earth  so  well  provided  with  water 
-by  nature;  only  that  desolation  and  utter  neglect  sent  the 
water  back  into  the  bowels  of  the  earth,  beneath  the  sandy  wastes 
and  into  the  recesses  of  the  Wadis ;  that  with  a  little  will-power 
and  some  outlay  of  money,  with  an  uninterrupted  stream  of 
pioneers,  all  this  hidden  water  will  well  up  once  again,  irrigating 
the  forlorn  stretches,  causing  the  green  things  to  sprout  forth, 
regenerating  the  old  pastures,  and  fertilizing  groves  and  forests. 

Cotton,  Olives,  Turkish  Tobacco,  African  Rubber,  Brazilian 
Banana,  Indian  Pine-apple,  and  all  imaginable  fruits  and  products, 
have  been  found  to  thrive  in  Palestinian  soil  as  the  result  of  the 
first  experiments  instituted  for  this  purpose.  All  that  is  needed  is 
that  the  Jews  come  from  everywhere  and  join  in  the  work;  that 
they  come  in  masses ;  for  Greater  Eretz-Yisrael,  as  I  have  de- 
scribed it  for  you,  can  shelter  not  only  a  paltry  million ;  not  only 
the  entire  Jewish  nation  of  today,  but  even  scores  of  millions,  if 
we  but  will,  if  we  but  grow,  strive  and  aspire. 

*        *        * 

Even  before  the  outbreak  of  the  present  world-war,  my  little 
map  will  tell  you  that  the  English  planned  to  build  a  railroad 
from  Egypt  to  Mesopotamia,  and  from  thence  to  India,  through 
Southern  Palestine;  at  the  same  time  the  French  projected  to 
continue  their  existing  railway  from  Beyruth-Damascus  to  the 
self-same  Mesopotamia  and  from  thence  onward  to  Persia.  And 
the  Turks,  too,  desiring  to  lord  it  over  neighboring  Arabia,  had 
already  constructed  a  track  from  Constantinople  and  Damascus 
as  far  as  Medina  and  Mecca,  this  line  passing  right  through 
Eretz-Yisrael. 

For  Palestine,  to  our  great  fortune,  is  situated  at  the  focal 
point  of  three  worlds,  between  progressive  Europe,  populous 
Asia  and  dusky  Africa;  and  all  the  three  must  needs  meet  here. 
Shall  we  then  give  others  the  opportunity  to  build  that  which  we 
can  and  should  build  ourselves?  Shall  we  leave  it  to  others  to 
settle  upon  and  appropriate  that  which  we  can  and  ought  to 
acquire  for  our  people  ? 

76 


No,  a  thousand  times  no !  My  brothers  and  sisters,  members 
of  Young  Judaea,  I  charge  you  to  redouble  your  efforts,  fol- 
lowing in  this  the  example  of  your  pioneer  brothers  who  went 
before  you,  and  join  ever  new  forces  in  behalf  of  our  work  of 
restoration. 

For  each  new  house  which  we  erect  in  our  land,  each  new 
garden,  each  new  vineyard  or  field  which  we  plant  and  sow,  each 
new  centre  which  we  create  and  each  new  soul  which  we  re- 
create, will  bring  us  a  step  nearer  to  that  coming  era  in  which  the 
glories  of  Yesterday  and  Tomorrow  will  meet. 

We  are  an  One  People,  whether  conservative  or  liberal, 
whether  Ashkenazi  or  Sepharadi,  whether  Rabbanites,  Karaites, 
or  Shomronites,  and  Zion  is  our  One  Aim.  Once  the  war  is  over, 
and  the  upheavals  caused  by  it  are  past,  the  freedom  of  the  seas 
will  be  re-established  and  new  horizons  will  open  before  us.  Then 
a  new  flux  of  eager  pilgrims  will  start  for  our  country,  and  there, 
in  our  beloved  East,  there  in  our  own  land,  we  the  Hebrews  of 
long  standing  and  you  the  Hebrews  to  come,  will  unitedly  lay  our 
hands  on  every  spot  which  once  belonged  to  us :  from  Sidon  to 
Sukkoth,  from  Tadmor  to  Ur-Kasdim,  from  the  Mediterranean 
to  the  Red  Sea,  from  the  mighty  Euphrates  to  the  far-stretching 
Desert,  the  Desert  as  yet  empty  and  solitary,  but  rich  despite  its 
seeming  poverty  and  fresh  in  its  unused  vigor ;  the  Desert  dear  to 
me  above  all  things,  for  in  the  baffling  mystery  of  its  hiding- 
places  I  discern  the  footprints  of  our  brethren,  blood  of  our  blood 
and  bone  of  our  bone,  the  tenacious  remnants  of  Jerusalem,  laid 
low  by  the  ruthless  tyrant,  namely:  the  Tribe  of  Bene-Rechav 
whose  men  exact  a  heavy  tribute,  until  this  very  day,  from  all  the 
Mohammedans  traversing  their  territory  on  their  way  to  Islamic 
Mecca. . . . 

No !  You  do  not  know  the  Land ! 

Translated  from  the  Hebrew. 


77 


PALESTINE  AND  THE  JEWISH  DISPERSION. 

"O  May  the  Salvation    of   Israel 
Come  from  Zion"     Psalm  XIV,  7. 

BY  D.  DE  SOLA  POOL 

What  is  the  influence  of  the  work  being  done  by  the  Zionists 
of  Palestine  on  the  Jews  dispersed  over  the  rest  of  the  world? 
Although  Zionist  work  in  Palestine  has  begun  to  realize  its  possibil- 
ities only  during  the  present  generation,  we,  the  Jews  outside  of 
Palestine,  are  already  gathering  the  harvest  of  the  first  planting. 
Our  Zionist  work  in  Palestine  is  creating  and  exporting  for  us 
in  our  Galuth  something  that  is  more  important  than  Jewish  agri- 
culture, and  that  is,  Jewish  culture.  In  Palestine  alone  is  this 
true  Jewish  culture  being  created  to-day.  Such  a  claim  seems  at 
first  sight  to  be  an  exaggerated  one ;  but  a  brief  consideration  of  some 
of  the  main  elements  of  culture  will  show  that  it  is  fully  justified 
by  the  facts. 

JEWISH  ART. 

What  is  the  Jewish  art  of  the  Diaspora?  Is  it  the  grotesque 
medieval  wood-cuts  which  disfigure  our  modern  Haggada  service 
books?  Is  it  seen  in  the  sketches  of  the  sepulchre  of  Rachel  our 
Mother,  or  of  the  Temple,  which  are  sent  to  us  by  the  non-Zionist 
Palestinians  living  on  the  Chalukah?  Is  it  to  be  traced  in  the 
uncouth  style  of  book-binding  or  the  unsightly  ornamentation  of 
the  title-page  which  is  exported  with  Jewish  books  from  Wilna 
or  Warsaw?  Can  we  look  for  it  even  in  the  paintings  of  a  great 
Dutch  Jew  like  Josef  Israels,  or  an  English  Jew  like  Solomon  J. 
Solomon,  or  of  a  German  Jew  like  Max  Liebermann?  Is  there 
Jewish  art  in  the  pagan-classic  or  Moslem-Moorish  architecture 
of  our  American  synagogues?  We  can  claim  neither  the  hideous 
products  of  Ghetto  art  nor  the  aesthetically  beautiful  work  of  a 
Josef  Israels  as  being  true  Jewish  art.  It  is  often  contended  that 
the  work  of  a  Lilien,  a  Hermann  Struck  and  other  Zionist  artists 
who  depict  by  preference  Jewish  scenes,  is  Jewish  art.  But  there 
is  more  of  Aubrey  Beardsley  than  of  Jewishness  about  the  work 
of  Lilien,  and  in  Struck  we  have  the  German  etcher  with  intense 
Jewish  sympathies.  German,  Russian  or  English  art,  even  when 
produced  by  a  Jew,  and  when  picturing  Jewish  scenes,  is  Jewish 
only  incidentally.  Essentially  it  remains  German,  Russian  or  Eng- 
lish. 

The  work  of  the  artists  who  have  flourished  in  cloudy  Hol- 
land is  distinguished  on  the  whole  by  chiaroscuro,  Dutch  atmos- 
phere and  Dutch  motifs.  So  also  should  our  Jewish  art  be  an 
expression  of  Jewish  environment,  an  art  in  which  the  sky  and 
air  and  life  of  Palestine  are  an  indispensable  inspiration.  Until 
the  Zionists  founded  the  Bezalel  School  in  Jerusalem,  there  was  no 
Jewish  art  in  the  true  sense  of  the  term.  To  Professor  Boris 

78 


Schatz,  the  originator  and  guiding  spirit  of  our  School,  belongs 
the  glory  of  beginning  the  development  of  an  intrinsically  Jewish 
art.  Motifs  of  essentially  Jewish  life  are  created  and  developed 
there.  He  has  formed  within  the  School  a  museum  of  the  flora 
and  fauna  of  the  Holy  Land  to  enhance  the  inspiration  of  the  land. 
Even  the  very  letters  of  our  Hebrew  alphabet  are  given  artistic 
value  and  are  used  for  decorative  design. 

In  such  ways,  Palestinian  Jewish  feeling  is  becoming  predom- 
inant in  the  creations  of  the  Bezalel  School.  There,  under  our 
very  eyes,  an  art  is  being  developed  which  is  Jewish  in  conception 
and  execution,  feeling  and  motif.  It  is  not  simply  a  German  or  an 
English  art  Judaized,  but,  being  created  by  Jews  living  under 
Jewish  influences  in  a  Jewish  land,  it  is  originally  and  inherently 
Jewish.  As  yet,  it  is  in  its  beginnings;  but  the  works  of  the 
Bezalel  School  were  rapidly  increasing  in  number,  importance  and 
artistic  value  before  the  war,  and  were  finding  a  place  in  Jewish 
homes  in  all  lands  of  the  Galuth.  We  Jews  of  the  exile  are  no 
longer  mere  parasites  on  the  art  schools  of  the  world,  everywhere 
copying  and  learning  from  others,  while  adding  nothing  of  our  own. 
Through  the  Bezalel  School,  we  have  begun  to  give  the  world 
beautiful  examples  of  our  own  Jewish  art,  created  and  inspired  by 
a  free  Jewish  life  in  Palestine. 

JEWISH  MUSIC. 

Conditions  are  similar  with  our  so-called  Jewish  music.  Fam- 
ous composers  of  Jewish  birth,  such  as  Meyerbeer,  Halevy  or 
Offenbach,  have  not  written  and  do  not  write  Jewish  music.  Bril- 
liant artistes,  such  as  Mischa  Elman  or  Harold  Bauer,  do  not 
play  Jewish  music.  They  write  or  play  the  musics  of  Russia, 
Germany,  Italy  or  France.  In  our  synagogues  there  is  music  that 
is  usually  called  Jewish.  But  the  synagogue  music  is  Judaic 
rather  than  Jewish,  that  is,  it  is  usually  the  music  of  environment 
Judaized,  not  uniquely  and  originally  Jewish  music.  We  have 
also  the  music  of  Yiddish  operas  or  Yiddish  lullabies  and  folk- 
songs. But  these  are  Yiddish  music,  that  is,  music  built  up  on 
Judaized  versions  of  Slavonic  modes,  and  they  give  melodic 
expression  to  the  soul  of  the  weeping  Ghetto,  not  to  the  soul  of  the 
free  Jew. 

Again,  we  are  compelled  to  look  to  the  Zionists  of  Palestine 
for  the  development  of  a  truly  Jewish  music  which  shall  be  some- 
thing more  than  a  Judaization  of  the  musical  modes  of  our  Galuth 
environment.  The  beginnings  have  already  been  made.  A  Jewish 
Conservatoire  of  Music  has  been  established  in  Jaffa.  Abraham 
Zevi  Idelsohn  has  published  a  collection  of  one  hundred  all-Hebrew 
songs, — songs  for  children,  for  their  games,  for  the  school-room, 
lyrics  of  nature,  marches  and  national  songs.  These  songs,  with  their 
Hebrew  words,  Hebrew  spirit  and  beginnings  of  Hebrew  melody, 
are  being  exported  from  Palestine  to  Hebraize  and  Judaize  our 
young  in  the  Diaspora.  To  bring  to  full  development  a  truly 
Jewish  music,  determined  in  its  Jewish  character  by  the  national 

79 


Jewish  life  from  which  it  springs,  will  take  more  than  a  decade  or  a 
generation.  But  that  development  is  going  forward  among  the 
Zionists  of  Palestine,  where  alone  in  the  world  the  environment  is 
essentially  Jewish. 

JEWISH  LITERATURE. 

A  third  element  of  Jewish  culture  which  is  receiving  a  new 
birth  in  Palestine,  is  Jewish  literature.  The  long  centuries  of  Galuth 
have  produced  a  wealth  of  Jewish  writings,  consisting  mainly  of 
a  development  of  our  ancient  religious  masterpieces.  While  Jewish 
national  life  on  its  own  soil  produced  the  Bible,  Jewish  denational- 
ized life  in  the  Galuth  has  produced  commentaries.  It  is  true  that 
there  have  been  occasional  outbursts  of  passionate  song  in  the  exile ; 
but  even  these  were  usually  called  forth  by  the  longing  for  Pales- 
tine and  renewed  national  life  in  our  own  land.  Of  secular  litera- 
ture the  Galuth  has  produced  next  to  nothing.  Even  such  splendid 
modern  products  of  Jewish  literature  in  the  Diaspora  as  Graetz's 
History,  written  in  German,  or  the  Jewish  Encyclopedia,  written 
in  English,  are  Judaic  rather  than  Jewish.  They  represent  the  Ger- 
man scientific  method  Judaized,  not  an  originally  Jewish  spirit  and 
method.  Fine  as  is  the  religious  literature  that  is  the  glory  of  our 
exile,  the  Bible  proves  that  we  could  achieve  far  better  did  we 
have  our  own  Jewish  land  with  a  national  Jewish  culture  in  that 
land.  It  is  to  the  Zionists  in  Palestine  that  we  must  turn  for  the 
foundations  of  a  national  Hebraic  literary  culture,  which  shall  be 
more  characteristically  Jewish  than  are  the  works  of  a  Zangwill 
or  a  Georg  Brandes. 

It  is  true  that  the  first  developments  of  modern  Hebrew  had 
their  home  in  Russia  and  Germany.  Extraordinary  efforts  were 
there  made  to  make  it  the  medium  of  Jewish  literature.  Books, 
magazines  and  newspapers  appeared  in  Hebrew.  But  so  long 
as  it  developed  in  those  lands,  it  was  exotic  and  the  literary  tongue 
of  only  the  learned  few.  It  could  not  become  the  vernacular.  In 
Palestine,  through  Zionist  perseverance  and  faith  in  an  ideal, 
Hebrew  has  become  the  daily  and  the  official  language  of  the  col- 
onies. The  children  in  the  streets  play  in  Hebrew,  for  it  is  their 
mother  tongue.  There  our  language  has  lost  the  stiffness  and 
artificiality  which  were  inseparable  from  it  so  long  as  it  was  a  lit- 
erary hobby,  and  it  has  developed  a  vocabulary  and  power  of 
expression  which  fit  it  for  all  the  needs  of  daily  life.  To-day,  it 
is  no  longer  the  Jews  of  Russia  who  are  teaching  Hebrew  to  the 
world,  but  it  is  the  Zionists  in  Palestine.  To  Zionistic  Palestine 
we  must  turn  for  Ben  Jehuda's  great  dictionary  of  the  Hebrew  of 
all  ages.  To  the  Zionists  of  Palestine  we  turn  for  the  Va'ad  Ha- 
lashon,  the  academy  formed  to  standardize  the  language.  To  Pales- 
tine we  turn  for  the  Jewish  National  Library,  founded  and  sup- 
ported in  Jerusalem  by  Zionist  enthusiasm  and  vision.  May  we  not 
see  in  these  revivals  of  true  Jewish  culture  a  fulfillment  of  the 
Biblical  word  Ki  mitsiyon  tetze  torah — truly  from  Zion  is  going 
forth  instruction? 

80 


JEWISH  LIFE. 

Yet  more.  Art,  music  and  literature  cannot  alone  constitute 
the  culture  of  a  nation.  In  a  broader  sense,  the  national  culture 
includes  every  act  and  attitude  which  gives  character  to  a  people. 
Have  we  Jews  outside  of  Palestine  a  Jewish  culture  in  this  sense? 

To  a  certain  extent  we  seem  to  possess  it.  The  Jewish  culture 
of  the  masses  is  expressed  partially  by  religious  celebrations,  the 
Yiddish  language,  traditional  Jewish  dishes,  Jewish  humor,  and  the 
other  characteristics  which  are  typical  of  our  thickly  settled  Jewish 
districts.  But  a  moment's  reflection  shows  how  little  these  are 
purely  Jewish.  In  every  detail  of  this  life,  we  see  the  unfortunate 
results  of  a  too  rapid  superimposing  of  American  culture,  sadly 
misinterpreted,  upon  an  abnormal  form  of  Jewish  culture.  Col- 
loquially, we  talk  of  the  East  Side,  Williamsburg  or  Brownsville, 
as  Jewish  centres.  But  did  Jews  form  one  hundred  per  cent,  of 
the  population  of  such  districts,  these  districts  could  never  be  any- 
thing else  than  American.  The  elements  of  general  culture  in 
them  are  all  American.  The  language,  the  streets  with  their  crowded 
tenements,  gaudy  stores,  screaming  newspapers,  thundering  elevated 
trains,  garish  and  aggressive  advertisements,  the  games  of  the 
children,  the  popular  interests,  political  discussions,  all  these  and  a 
thousand  other  elements  of  the  general  culture,  are  copies  of 
American  life,  tinged  with  a  slight,  and  usually  objectionable,  so- 
called  Jewish  coloring. 

It  is  no  less  true  that  were  Jews  to  form  one  hundred  per 
cent,  of  the  population  of  New  York  City  instead  of  twenty  per 
cent.,  a  truly  Jewish  life  based  on  a  truly  Jewish  culture  would  be 
just  as  hopeless  of  realization  in  New  York  City  as  it  is  in  any 
city  of  the  Diaspora  where  the  Jews  form  a  tenth  of  one  per 
cent,  of  the  general  population.  Even  the  Jewish  agricultural  col- 
onies in  America  are  not  truly  Jewish;  they  are  American  farm- 
ing colonies,  Judaized. 

The  creative  source  of  national  Jewish  culture  was  destroyed 
at  the  breakdown  of  the  Jewish  State  nineteen  hundred  years  ago. 
In  all  the  subsequent  centuries  of  life  outside  of  Palestine,  we  have 
not  been  able  to  create  a  culture  in  its  broader  sense  which  we  may 
call  truly  Jewish.  Where  then  are  we  to  look  for  these  characteristics 
of  national  Jewish  life  which  together  comprise  Jewish  culture  in  the 
wider  sense  of  the  term?  The  weakness  of  Jewish  culture  in  a  foreign 
environment,  even  under  favorable  circumstances,  gives  us  as  the 
only  possible  answer, — our  Jewish  settlement  in  Palestine. 

For  it  is  in  the  Jewish  colonies  of  Palestine  alone  that  there  is 
the  possibility  of  developing  a  completely  Jewish  life,  freed  from 
the  cramping  and  unbeautiful  influences  of  the  Ghetto,  and  freed 
also  from  the  overwhelming  non-Jewish  influences  of  an  alien 
environment.  In  the  Palestinian  colonies  founded  by  Zionists  the 
chief  problems  of  the  Diaspora  do  not  exist.  There  is  no  Sabbath 
problem,  for  the  recognized  day  of  rest  is  the  Jewish  Sabbath. 
There  is  no  difficulty  in  observing  the  Jewish  dietary  laws,  for  no 
others  are  recognized.  In  those  colonies  there  is  no  soul-deaden- 

81 


ing  routine  in  teaching  Hebrew  as  a  dead  and  not-understood 
tongue,  for  the  language  of  our  religion  is  absorbed  with  the 
mother's  milk. 

What  Jew  would  not  be  thrilled  at  seeing  in  our  land  this 
beautiful,  free,  normal  Jewish  life  from  which  the  Ghetto  look  of 
fear  and  the  Ghetto  bend  have  disappeared?  We  have  known  of 
Jews  who  had  been  proud  of  their  almost  complete  assimilation  in 
our  exile,  turn  to  Zion  as  the  hope  of  Jewry,  after  one  visit  to 
the  Jewish  colonies  in  Palestine.  What  converted  them  was  not 
historical  sentiment,  nor  Biblical  tradition,  nor  sacred  names  and 
shrines;  it  was  the  discovery  of  something  unseen  in  any  land  of 
our  dispersion — the  true  type  of  Jew  living  a  free  Jewish  life. 

This  that  we  see  to-day  in  Palestine  in  being,  was  twenty-five 
years  ago  the  vision  and  the  dream  of  Achad  Ha'am,  a  pioneer 
thinker  of  our  national  revival.  He  foresaw  that  our  Zionist  col- 
onies would  become:  "A  national  spiritual  centre  of  Judaism,  to 
which  all  Jews  will  turn  with  affection,  and  which  will  bind  all 
Jews  together;  a  centre  of  study  and  learning,  of  language  and 
literature,  of  bodily  work  and  spiritual  fortification;  a  true  minia- 
ture of  the  people  of  Israel  as  it  ought  to  be so  that  every 

Hebrew  in  the  Diaspora  will  think  it  a  privilege  to  behold  just 
once  the  'centre  of  Judaism,'  and  when  he  returns  home  will  say 
to  his  friends:  'If  you  wish  to  see  the  genuine  type  of  Jew, 
whether  it  be  a  Rabbi  or  a  scholar  or  a  writer,  a  farmer  or  an 
artist  or  a  business  man — then  go  to  Palestine  and  you  will  see  it.' " 
We  are  living  this  dream  to-day ;  for  this  is  what  is  happening 
with  growing  frequency,  as  the  Jewish  type  now  in  the  making  in 
the  Zionist  colonies  of  Palestine  becomes  more  numerously  repre- 
sented and  more  clearly  defined. 

JEWISH  EDUCATION. 

The  influence  of  this  new  wholly  Jewish  type  is  growing  more 
and  more  potent  in  radiating  general  Jewish  culture  throughout 
the  world,  and  in  giving  to  the  Jew  of  the  Diaspora  the  long  looked 
for  standard  of  what  constitutes  a  Jew.  The  most  important  factor 
in  this  influence  is  Jewish  education.  The  Zionist  schools  and  col- 
leges in  Palestine,  such  as  the  Tachkemoni  School  in  Jaffa,  the  Gym- 
nasium in  Jaffa,  or  the  Teachers'  College  in  Jerusalem,  are  creat- 
ing a  standard  of  truly  Jewish  education.  The  Hebrew  Bible  and 
the  Talmud  are  the  foundations  of  the  whole  course  of  study.  The 
teaching  of  history  culminates  in  an  appreciation  of  our  Jewish 
heroes  and  the  meaning  of  our  survival.  The  teaching  of  geog- 
raphy leads  to  a  familiarity  with  the  heights  of  Carmel  and  Hermon, 
the  glories  of  Galilee,  the  hills,  valleys  and  streets  of  the  Holy  City. 
Even  such  unsectarian  subjects  as  mathematics,  Latin  or  Greek  are 
there  taught  through  the  Hebrew  medium,  which  gives  to  them  a 
Jewish  atmosphere.  The  field  of  education  is  universal,  but  its  spirit 
and  its  aspiration  are  Jewish.  The  influence  of  these  schools  is 
penetrating  the  Jewries  of  the  world,  and  revealing  to  them  a  new 

82 


conception  of  Jewishness  in  education,  possible  of  realization  in  its 
completeness  only  in  Palestine,  but  inspirational  to  the  Jewries  of 
the  Diaspora.  Our  Galuth  religious  schools  have  been  given  new 
life  through  the  Zionist  schools  of  Palestine.  Men  of  Palestinian 
birth,  such  as  Dr.  Benderly  in  the  United  States  or  I.  W.  Slotki  in 
England,  have  introduced  into  them  the  methods  of  teaching  Hebrew 
as  a  living  language  developed  by  a  Yellin  in  Jerusalem.  The 
Zionists  have  brought  to  our  shores  the  songs  and  the  living  spirit  of 
our  promised  land,  and  have  made  our  schools  attractively  Jewish 
and  nationally  inspiring.  If  Zionist  work  in  Palestine  had  done 
nothing  else  than  reinforce  the  failing  religious  teaching  of  the 
Diaspora  and  render  it  able  permanently  to  influence  the  young 
and  train  an  effectively  Jewish  generation,  our  debt  to  that  work 
could  never  be  overestimated. 

JEWISH  UNITY. 

We  must  pass  over  many  other  phases  of  the  regenerating 
influence  of  modern  Zionist  Palestine  on  our  life  in  the  exile.  But 
there  is  one  other  influence  which  must  receive  brief  mention.  In 
the  Diaspora,  the  Spanish  Jew  tends  to  look  down  upon  the  German 
Jew,  and  the  German  Jew  upon  the  Russian  Jew,  thus  weakening 
the  sense  of  unity  and  brotherhood  of  our  people.  The  Jew  in 
America,  France  or  Germany  or  similar  lands  who  does  not  speak 
the  language  of  the  country  without  a  foreign  accent  is  regarded  by 
his  brother  Jews  of  those  lands  as  a  foreigner.  Even  in  pre-Zion- 
istic  Jerusalem,  the  Jews  are  divided  up  according  to  the  lands  of 
their  nativity  and  their  varying  vernaculars.  Alone  in  the  Zionist 
colonies  of  Palestine  are  these  disorganizing,  local  prejudices  broken 
down.  There  one  finds  Jews  from  Persia  and  St.  Louis,  Jews 
from  Turkestan  and  Poland,  Jews  from  Yemen  and  from  Berlin,  in 
the  Jewish  melting  pot,  living  together  in  brotherhood  and  unity, 
speaking  the  unifying  Hebrew  language  and  bound  together  on 
the  common  synthetic  basis  of  Jewishness  and  Judaism. 

We  in  the  Diaspora  are  beginning  to  feel  a  sense  of  closer  cohe- 
sion through  the  common  interest  in  the  Jew  and  his  Jewish  cul- 
ture in  the  land  of  Israel.  Unlike  the  work  of  associations  such  as 
the  Alliance  Israelite  Universelle  which  appeals  to  the  French  Jew, 
or  that  of  the  Hilfsverein  der  Deutschen  Juden  which  appeals  to 
the  Jews  of  Germany  and  which  serves  German  interests,  Zionist 
work  in  Palestine  transcends  all  local  patriotism  and  makes  its  uni- 
versal appeal  directly  to  the  Jewish  heart  of  the  Jew  everywhere. 
The  problems  of  Palestine  concern  equally  the  Jew  in  South  Africa, 
Belgium,  Hong-Kong  or  Buenos  Ayres.  When  before  the  war  an 
effort  was  made  to  divert  the  migration  of  the  Yemenite  Jews  into 
Palestine,  and  to  provide  them  there  with  work  and  with  homes, 
no  Zionist  stood  aside  on  the  ground  of  narrow,  non-Jewish,  local 
interests.  This  effort  to  settle  the  Yemenites  in  Palestine  was  epoch- 
making,  not  only  in  being  the  first  organized  attempt  ever  made, 
during  all  our  hapless  centuries  of  exile,  consciously  and  with  set 


purpose  to  guide  the  steps  of  the  wandering  Jew  homeward,  but 
also  in  being  the  co-operative  work  of  Jews  of  all  lands.  The  magic 
of  Palestine  is  wiping  out  lines  of  local  prejudice,  and  is  aligning  all 
Jews  for  the  common  ideal.  This  reawakening  of  the  sense  of  the 
universality  and  oneness  of  Jewry  is  being  effected  by  Zionist  work 
in  Palestine. 

Wheresoever  we  turn,  we  find  that  the  work  of  the  Zionists  in 
Palestine  is  strengthening  and  enriching  Jewish  life  in  the  exile. 
We  in  the  Diaspora  have  had  no  national  Jewish  art ;  the  Zionists  in 
Palestine  are  developing  one  for  us.  We  have  had  no  national  Jew- 
ish music;  they  are  creating  it  for  us.  We  have  had  no  national 
Hebraic  literature;  they  are  producing  it  for  us.  We  have  had 
no  living  national  language ;  they  are  reviving  it  for  us.  We  have 
had  no  successful  system  of  Jewish  education  for  the  young;  they 
are  building  one  for  us.  We  have  had  no  standard  of  what  con- 
stitutes a  completely  Jewish  life ;  they  are  creating  this  for  us.  We 
have  had  little  sense  of  the  solidarity  and  oneness  of  Israel.  They 
are  instilling  into  us  this  consciousness  of  Jewish  brotherhood  and 
unity. 

These  are  some  of  the  concrete  gifts  which  Palestine  brings 
to  us.  There  are  others,  less  tangible  perhaps,  but  no  less  quicken- 
ing. Zionist  work  in  Palestine  is  teaching  us  no  longer  to  weep  for 
Zion,  but  to  work  for  Zion.  It  is  teaching  us  that  the  true  con- 
quest of  a  land  by  the  Jew  is  not  by  spear  and  sword,  but  by  plough- 
share and  pruning  hook.  The  concrete  achievements  there  attained 
and  the  translation  of  ideals  into  reality  have  been  more  eloquent  in 
preachment  to  the  assimilated  Jew  than  all  oratory  of  words.  Enough 
if  it  has  been  shown  that  the  tree  of  Jewish  culture  must  be  rooted 
in  Jewish  soil  and  its  leaves  bathed  in  Jewish  atmosphere  if  it  is  to 
produce  true  Jewish  fruit.  The  Zionists  in  Palestine  are  creating  a 
Jewish  spirit  which  is  breathing  upon  the  dry  bones  of  Galuth  Jewish 
life  and  making  them  live  again.  Verily  the  Zionist  centres  in  Pal- 
estine are  becoming  what  Achad  Ha'am  calls  "a  home  of  healing  for 
our  national  spirit  and  culture,  which  will  be  a  new  spiritual  bond 
between  the  scattered  sections  of  the  people,  and  which  by  its  spir- 
itual influence  will  stimulate  them  all  to  a  national  life." 


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